Technological Transformation Processes and Resistance—On the Conflict Potential of 5G Using the Example of 5G Network Expansion in Germany

Abstract

The expansion of fifth-generation wireless technology (5G) has been assigned the significance of a ‘key technology’ in connection with technological advances in the context of the digitalization of societies, which is a central goal of current governments in leading industrialized nations. As with other large-scale infrastructure projects such as the expansion of renewable energies as part of the energy transition in Germany, the plans for implementation are meeting with great resistance from the population, sometimes resulting in arson attacks on 5G transmission masts. Current research on 5G focuses primarily on technical–economic, health-related and, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, increasingly conspiracy-theoretical aspects, while questions of acceptance or conflict potential have received little attention to date. This article aims to address this research gap and, on the basis of a conflict-theoretical perspective according to Dahrendorf combined with a socio-economic contextualization in the sense of Bourdieu, approaches the question of the extent to which social conflict has already progressed and what regulatory possibilities socio-economic contexts assume in terms of significance. For this purpose, about 70 identifiable internet presences of citizens’ initiatives against 5G were qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated.