The project explores how energy issues are communicated in and across different discourse domains in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). This includes how energy companies engage with diverse stakeholders, how policymakers share their decisions, and how citizens discuss energy issues on social media.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the geopolitical implications of energy issues have added to environmental and social consequences. They have garnered attention in several discourse arenas, ranging from social media and political communication to public affairs and corporate communication. They opened up a discursive space for social actors pursuing divergent agendas.

In the CEE region, the challenges posed by these divergent agendas are perceived and dealt with differently than in Western Europe due to the specific sociocultural and political frameworks, geographical location, and historical memory.

We examine how energy companies, NGOs, and political actors (e.g., policymakers, public administration, or transnational political organizations) communicatively navigate this extremely challenging field and how they position themselves vis-à-vis these conflicting agendas. We address the national and transnational specificities by comparing how energy issues are communicated in and across the CEE region (e.g., Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine).

Project Team

Nadine Thielemann

Martina Berrocal (Friedrich Schiller University, Jena / Germany)