Büşra Üner

Büşra Üner is a sociologist working at the intersection of political ecology, gender, social movements, and decolonial studies. She is currently a junior fellow at the Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies (BIGSAS) in Bayreuth, Germany. She is currently finishing her PhD research on rural women's environmental activism and potential feminist and environmental solidarities in Somkhele, South Africa. Drawing on the theories of social reproduction and necropolitics, she argues that, with the end of environmental activism, the process of waiting for lawsuits and bureaucracy creates a situation of in-betweenness of hope and doubt for women. Previously, she completed her MA in Sociology at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul. Her master's research compares the Cerattepe (Artvin) anti-mining movement with the Kirazlı anti-mining movement (Çanakkale) in Türkiye, focusing on the role of place-based relations in organizing the environmental movement. She also worked as a research assistant at the Center for Spatial Justice, an Istanbul-based civil society organization, where she remains a member. Apart from academic and civil society work, she enjoys spending time in nature, admiring flowers, and collecting and planting seeds. She volunteers at a community garden in Nürnberg, Germany, and enjoys spending time in her family’s garden in Tekirdağ.  

A Roadmap for a Gender-Inclusive Exit from Coal: A Comparative Analysis of Türkiye and Germany 

This project examines select coal-based regions in Türkiye and Germany to analyze climate governance that focuses solely on technical solutions, efficiency, and male-dominated sectors through gender perspectives. It compares women’s protests, civil society’s role in climate governance, and municipal climate action across the two countries to highlight how different geographical, economic, and political factors impact the adoption of a gender-inclusive just transition and women’s shared experiences. Drawing on the method of cuerpo-territorio—the intersection of body and territory emerging from Latin American feminist geography and decolonial studies—it asks how women’s experiences of environmental pollution guide the design of a gender-inclusive roadmap for an exit from coal. This roadmap will analyze the socioeconomic impacts of climate change and environmental pollution on women’s social reproductive labor and feelings embedded in the relationship between body and territory. The project highlights the role of gender in policymaking and unmasks women’s demands for justice.