Save the River Mur

Hall of Beef Contesting the City

“Contesting the City” brings various urban initiatives together into dialogue about modes of resistance past and present: about stubbornly insisting on alternative forms of planning, development, uses, and futures for the city. In two evening events, we will talk about their motivations, strategies, and the challenges they face.

For the second event, we invite representatives from the platform “Save the River Mur” to look back on the broad mobilisation of the movement against the Mur power station. What can we learn from this movement for future mobilisation and coalition-building? What do the activists involved think about the Mur power station today, and its repercussions for the banks of the Mur? What remains from the mass social movement, and how did it change Graz?

Dates

19.04.2024
11.05.2024

Image: Zsa Zsa Section Urbanity & Space

About our guests

Save the River Mur

Contesting the city | Save the River Mur
FORUM STADTPARK - Hall of Beef

Alexandra Haunold grew up in Hausmannstätten and always travelled a lot around the Mur and in the Mur floodplains. When the power plant plans for Gössendorf and Kalsdorf became public, she and her two sisters were involved in the founding of ‘Save the Mur’ and remained active in the initiative until the end. In addition to her activism, she studied languages and cooked for Café Erde in the city centre of Graz. She now works as an assistant for a general practitioner in Graz and teaches karate on the side.

Sigrid Schönfelder, born in 1956, is a trained teacher and photographer. Since 2006, she has been a board member of Naturefriends Graz and a photo consultant for the TVN Graz photo group. In 2008 she published a Zwentendorf book. She joined the ‘Save the Mur’ movement in 2009.

Steven Weiss, born 1958 in New Jersey, USA, was an associate professor at the University of Graz until October 2023. He specialised in river ecology and the evolution and conservation of freshwater fish. Even in retirement, he continues to research and teach at the university and is involved in various functions at national and international level for water protection.

Björn Münnich is a copywriter and has been working in the marketing industry for 20 years. He used his expertise in content strategy and professional copywriting for ‘Save the Mur’ to communicate the initiative's goals to the public.