Beyond opposition and acceptance: Examining public perceptions of the environmental and health impacts of unconventional oil and gas extraction

Cotton, Matthew; Charnley-Parry, Ioan

doi:10.1016/j.coesh.2018.01.001

Cited by 15 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…For example, Aitken (2010Aitken ( p. 1834Aitken ( , 1840 draws out the assumptions which underlie social acceptance literature and suggests that researchers should not be contributing to advancing the social acceptance of energy technologies. As such, some scholars have moved beyond a focus on 'acceptance' and have instead focused on general and varied responses to energy infrastructure (i.e., see Cotton and Charnley-Parry 2018). Aitken (2010Aitken ( , p. 1838) critiques research that aims to reduce opposition and increase the likelihood of planning approval of energy projects by questioning: (1) what is considered the 'problem' and who decides this, (2) what conclusions are drawn, and (3) how this approach may gloss over the legitimate and valid community concerns about a proposed energy project.…”

Section: Instrumental Rationale In Social Science Energy Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do the ends justify the means? Problematizing social acceptance and instrumentally-driven community engagement in proposed energy projects

Ryder

Walker

Batel

et al. 2023

Socio Ecol Pract Res

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Proposed energy projects across rural working landscapes play an important role in energy transitions. While community engagement has been increasingly a part of these projects, instrumental motivations for engagement and the emphasis placed on achieving social acceptance has remained uncritically examined. Here, we aim to highlight relationships between actor rationale, the structuring of engagement processes, and how communities perceive the driving forces behind engagement practices. To do so, we draw on lived experiences of communities facing proposed shale gas and wind energy projects across rural working landscapes in the UK and Canada, respectively. We find that engagement is often perceived by community members as insincere, insufficient, ineffective and instrumentally-driven. We suggest that a more community-centered approach to engagement is necessary and will require a move beyond existing engagement and acceptance practice and frameworks. This can include creating more inclusive decision-making processes where powers are balanced and designing community engagement to incorporate multiple rationales beyond achieving social acceptance of energy projects.

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Section: Instrumental Rationale In Social Science Energy Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do the ends justify the means? Problematizing social acceptance and instrumentally-driven community engagement in proposed energy projects

Ryder

Walker

Batel

et al. 2023

Socio Ecol Pract Res

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“…Public perceptions. These studies examine the demographic characteristics (Thomas et al, 2017), political ideologies, and technical knowledge (Crowe et al, 2015;Evensen et al, 2017;Lachapelle, 2017) of supporters and opponents (Cotton and Charnley-Parry, 2018), the conditions under which risks are perceived and negotiated (Whitmarsh et al, 2015), and the commonalities and shared interpretations of UHD discourse within and amongst different stakeholder groups (Cotton, 2015;Ladd, 2013).…”

Section: Discourses Of Unconventional Oil and Gas Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fracking and metaphor: Analysing newspaper discourse in the USA, Australia and the United Kingdom

Cotton

Barkemeyer

Renzi

et al. 2019

Ecological Economics

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We apply a mixed-method design centred on the deployment of metaphors to explore the role that language plays in the structuring of the public discourses of unconventional hydrocarbon development (UHD) across three major developed economies. We analyse UHD-related metaphorical devices deployed in broadsheet newspapers in Australia, the UK and the USA between January 2006 and May 2018. We develop an innovative Type Hierarchy Approach to metaphors by mapping through directed graph hierarchies. These allow concept-mapping analysis in terms of supertypes and subtypes, i.e. concepts ordered in terms of generality and inclusion as in Òrapid expansionÓ-> ÒexplosionÓ. We find two broad discourses, each containing metaphorical constructions: economic gain across temporal horizons (incorporating boom, bonanza, revolution and death metaphors); and risk tolerance and decision-making (incorporating gamble and insanity metaphors). At the level of individual metaphors, deployment trends and patterns can be mapped along country borders rather than for example political alignment. Boom and bonanza appear most widespread in the USA, whereas UHD as a revolution is more closely associated with UK newspapers. Over time, UHD-related metaphor use decreases in all three countries, potentially reflecting an increasing public acceptance of UHD and moving shale gas from unconventional to conventional hydrocarbon development.

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“…Moreover, in terms of the reasons for opposing/supporting fracking, the empirical literature has often found, not surprisingly, that respondents who expect fracking to deliver economic benefits to their region are more supportive of the practice, while those who fear environmental or health issues are much less supportive of drilling (Theodori, 2009;Jacquet, 2012;Kriesky et al, 2013;Jacquet, 2014;Boudet et al, 2014;Graham et al, 2015;Whitmarsh et al, 2015;Andersson-Hudson et al, 2016;Boudet et al, 2016;Whitworth et al, 2017;Cotton and Charnley-Parry, 2018). For instance, Boudet et al (2016) found that employment levels in the natural resources and mining sector in the respondents county, as well as residing in an area experiencing active OG development, significantly increase support for fracking.…”

Section: Previous Work On Attitudes Towards Frackingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public Attitudes towards Hydraulic Fracturing in Western Newfoundland

2019

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Hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" is an emerging unconventional technology in the oil and gas (OG) exploitation sector linked to high levels of uncertainty. In this paper, we examine the level of support for fracking in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador (NL). This province is also one of the regions of the country in which fracking could be performed and whose economy could substantially benefit from the availability of this new source of energy resources. However, there remain serious obstacles to the social acceptability of fracking among the people of NL and, in particular, the prospect of fracking in Western Newfoundland (WNL) is a highly controversial issue. This area hosts one of the most highly valuable natural areas in the province (Gross Morne National Park). We identify key factors to oppose or support fracking. Using a multinomial logit model, we characterize di↵erent groups of citizens who oppose or support fracking and also other 'conventional' extractive technologies. Institutional issues, environmental risks, and socio-economic factors will be considered when explaining attitudes towards fracking. Further understanding the acceptability of this 'unconventional' technology should help public regulators make decisions and design optimal policies in the OG extraction sector.

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Beyond opposition and acceptance: Examining public perceptions of the environmental and health impacts of unconventional oil and gas extraction

Abstract: CLoK Central Lancashire online Knowledge www.clok.uclan.ac.uk Beyond opposition and acceptance: examining public perceptions of the environmental and health impacts of unconventional oil and gas extraction.

Cited by 15 publications

References 54 publications

Do the ends justify the means? Problematizing social acceptance and instrumentally-driven community engagement in proposed energy projects

Do the ends justify the means? Problematizing social acceptance and instrumentally-driven community engagement in proposed energy projects

Fracking and metaphor: Analysing newspaper discourse in the USA, Australia and the United Kingdom

Public Attitudes towards Hydraulic Fracturing in Western Newfoundland

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