1,721,070 research outputs found
Symmetries, expectations, dynamics and contexts: a framework for understanding public engagement with renewable energy projects
No full textAs this book ably demonstrates, there is a growing body of research on public beliefs, reactions and responses to large-scale renewable energy projects of various forms, often focused on case studies of controversy and local conflict. The profile of available cases has expanded significantly, covering a diversity of locations and contexts around the world and a wide range of types of renewable energy technology and modes of project development. Alongside the reporting of empirical research, there have also been various attempts to describe and characterize public responses to renewable energy projects and develop explanatory frameworks or predictive models. These include the NIMBY (‘Not in my back yard’) explanations of public opposition that are often favoured in media reporting and political debate (Toynbee, 2007), broad frameworks for thinking about social acceptance (Wüstenhagen et al, 2007) and statistical models that characterize and measure variables that are believed to predict the nature of public opposition (Wolsink, 2000) or planning decision outcomes (Toke et al, 2008)
Shaping people’s engagement with microgeneration technology:the case of solar photovoltaics in UK homes
No full textThroughout the world, the threat of climate change is pressing governments to accelerate the deployment of technologies to generate low carbon electricity or heat. But this is frequently leading to controversy, as energy and planning policies are revised to support new energy sources or technologies (e.g. offshore wind, tidal, bioenergy or hydrogen energy) and communities face the prospect of unfamiliar, often large-scale energy technologies being sited near to their homes. Policy makers in many countries face tensions between 'streamlining' planning procedures, engaging with diverse publics to address what is commonly conceived as 'NIMBY' (not in my back yard) opposition, and the need to maintain democratic, participatory values in planning systems.This volume provides a timely, international review of research on public engagement, in contexts of diverse, innovative energy technologies. Public engagement is conceived broadly - as the interaction between how developers and other key actors engage with publics about energy technologies (including assumptions held about the methods used, such as the provision of financial benefits or the holding of deliberative events), and how individuals and groups engage with energy policies and projects (including indirectly through the media and directly through emotional and behavioural responses).The book's contributors are leading experts in the UK, Europe, North and South America and Australia drawn from a variety of relevant social science disciplinary perspectives. The book makes a significant contribution to our existing knowledge, as well as providing interested professionals, policymakers and members of the public with a timely overview of the critical issues involved in public engagement with low carbon energy technologies
Understanding Local Public Responses to a High-voltage Transmission Power Line Proposal in South-West England: Investigating the Role of Life-place Trajectories and Project-related Factors
No full textWith a projected increase in electricity demand and low-carbon energy generation in the UK, expansion of the existing transmission grid network is required. In going beyond the NIMBY concept, Devine-Wright (2009) posited a place-based approach that highlights the roles of place attachment and place-related symbolic meanings for understanding public responses to energy infrastructure proposals.
This PhD research investigated two overarching and interrelated research aims. The first sought to enlarge our understandings of the processes of attachment and detachment to the residence place by investigating the dynamics of varieties of people-place relations across the life course (people’s ‘life-place trajectories’), thus addressing the limitation of studies adopting a ‘structural’ approach to the study of people-place relations. This research, in a second instance, sought to better understand the role of people’s life-place trajectories and a range of project-based factors (i.e. procedural and distributive justice) in shaping people’s responses to a power line proposal. This research focussed on the Hinckley Point C (HPC) transmission line proposal and residents of the town of Nailsea, South-West England.
A social representations theory framework was usefully applied to this research by acknowledging that people’s personal place relations and their beliefs about proposed place change, are situated and embedded within wider social representations of place and project. A mixed methods approach was employed comprising three empirical studies. The first consisted of twenty-five narrative interviews, the second a set of five focus group interviews, and the third a questionnaire survey study (n=264) amongst a representative sample of Nailsea residents. Triangulating findings across the three studies produced a novel set of key findings.
By elaborating five novel ‘life-place trajectories’, this PhD research moved beyond structural approaches to the study of people-place relations and made a novel contribution to our understandings of the processes and dynamics of attachment and detachment to the residence place across the life course. This research further confirmed the existing typology of people-place relations and revealed a novel variety termed ‘Traditional-active attachment’.
Life-place trajectories were instrumental in informing divergent representations of the nearby countryside which were more or less congruent with objectified representations of the HPC project. Future studies investigating place and project meanings should be sensitive to these trajectories. Interestingly, place as a ‘centre of meaning’ rather than a ‘locus of attachment’ (or non-attachment) emerged as particularly salient for understanding responses to the project.
Project-based factors were salient in informing participants’ responses toward the project. A perceived imbalance between high local costs and an absence of local benefits was seen to result in distributive injustice and opposition toward the project. However, improved perceived procedural justice following National Grid’s announcement of siting concessions in the spring of 2013, was seen to ameliorate local trust in the developer and project acceptance.- EPSRC
- SusGrid research projec
Shaping people’s engagement with microgeneration technology:the case of solar photovoltaics in UK homes
No full text
Public roles and socio-technical configurations : diversity in renewable energy deployment in the UK and its implications
No full textRecommended from our members
Yes in my back yard: UK householders pioneering technologies
No full textFrom the material to the imagined: public engagement with low carbon technologies in a nuclear community
No full textInvestigating public disengagement from planning for major infrastructure projects: A high voltage powerline case study
Full text linkPublic disengagement from consultation is a real-world problem affecting areas of the public sphere, such as land use planning, where democracy is a key requirement. The ethos of engaging the public in decision-making has long been accepted as an important objective in the UK planning system in order to protect and serve the public interest. However, there is limited research into why the public frequently appear to disengage from the consultation process for major engineering projects such as energy infrastructure. Public disengagement can result in a lack of representation and legitimate speech in the discourse of decision-making and my research challenges the effectiveness of the current system.
Drawing on human geography, planning theory, sociology and my professional experience of working as an Environmental Planner on Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects, the research moves away from the current perceptions of an instrumental approach to public consultation for infrastructure. A novel approach to conceptualising disengagement is proposed through a Bourdieusian lens, which could enable a deeper understanding of the reasons for both voluntary and involuntary disengagement. By introducing a place dimension to the conceptual framework, the research is better able to understand the cognitive, affective and behavioural dimensions that reflect the ways in which communities of place choose to engage with, or disengage from, the public consultation process for infrastructure.
The research contributes conceptually, methodologically and empirically to addressing the research problem through a high voltage overhead powerline case study research design in Cumbria. Primary data has been collected through semi-structured interviews, participant observation and event ethnography. Secondary data, including local media, project documents, planning policy and best practice guidance, was also collected for contextual purposes. Qualitative methods allowed greater flexibility without a dependence on language, literacy or assumptions based on cultural norms and thematic analysis was selected as the method of analysis due to its accessibility and theoretically flexible approach to analysis which could be used with a case study research design. The credibility of the analysis was established through data collection triangulation using the secondary data to verify the emerging themes.
The primary contribution to knowledge from this research has been to expand the understanding of disengagement, using the novel conceptual approach that combines the Bourdieusian conceptual framework with aspects of place, and which also has policy and practice implications. Factors affecting engagement in the case study include an underlying thread of symbolic violence and perceptions of stigma which have been shown to be partly place-based and partly resulting from community experiences of legacy planning applications for energy. There are also underlying factors of marginalisation and peripherality, with small communities frequently perceived to be without power or voice in the process. An examination of the relationship between habitus and place has suggested that disengagement can be explained by both communities of practice and of place and an analysis of the public’s relationship with place through the varieties of people-place relations can bring additional insight to understanding the problem.
The empirical output of the research includes a Typology of Engagement which disrupts the existing binary approach to engagement and disengagement. The typology incorporates degrees of engagement and, more significantly, degrees of disengagement which, once identified, can be used to inform public engagement strategies, taking into account the wider characteristics of locally affected publics.
The findings of the case study offer a new understanding of aspects of disengagement and the findings support the argument that the conceptual approach of a Bourdieusian toolkit combined with a place dimension, can help to better understand the factors leading to disengagement. This opens up new opportunities for research in areas beyond planning, such as climate change, where public engagement could be key to the implementation of future adaptation strategies
- …
