Watching fracking

Abstract

The UK government's efforts to facilitate shale gas exploration have been matched by a surge of public opposition. The latter has manifested in a broad spectrum of activities in which local communities have “watched fracking”—meaning they have observed, protested, and filmed outside the drilling site, often taking note of when the pumps start and stop. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in northwest England, I analyze residents’ various “watching” activities as one dynamic through which they sought to mediate situated modes of sociopolitical erasure. Watching fracking was a form of directly participating in public matters, compensating the watchers for the state's perceived failures and those of corporate models of community engagement. It also helped members of the anti‐fracking community distance themselves from the state and their own feelings of alienation. By thus highlighting how disappointment with state formations interacts with an activist subjectivity, anthropologists can deepen our understanding of the changing relationship between state and society. [fracking, public engagement, state, citizen science, protest, extractive industry, Lancashire, United Kingdom]

Place and avoiding the race to the bottom of the fractured well

“…Note should be made that the practice is not itself regarded as illegal, but permission for undertaking it will not be forthcoming. It is on this extant regulatory framework that the piece comments, and it is worthy of note because of the considerable volume of literature that contends that the process itself or its impacts should be banned or far more strictly regulated for a range of reasons (Lampkin and Wyatt, 2020; Short et al , 2015) or that the regulatory framework in place is failing to account fully for the public opposition to the practice (Szolucha, 2022). The aim, however, is not to take a particular position in this regard because this has been extensively discussed, but instead to examine further the current regulatory position and their potential impacts thereof.…”

Fracking and Democracy in the United Kingdom

“…Before the police made the admission, however, residents with disabilities started to link their sudden loss of benefits to their participation in the protests. The police passed video footage of them as they were protesting to the DWP (Szolucha 2022). Some protesters lost their support for purchasing disability vehicles after they had been pulled over and inspected by the police near a protest site.…”

“…Fracking activism in England emerged as a grassroots response to the weakening of the democratic functions of the planning and regulatory systems in the UK (Szolucha 2022). In line with their narratives about failing democracy and their anti-state sentiments, members of the anti-as well as pro-fracking groups often prided themselves on their spontaneous and non-hierarchical organizational structures.…”

“…Although some anti-fracking groups that I observed did have official roles, such as a chair or treasurer, and some members were clearly more involved than others, this rarely had any real significance beyond the facilitation of orderly interactions with the authorities during the planning process. In addition to those local campaign groups, loose clusters of activists who were involved in the daily protests and direct actions at fracking sites were autonomous and non-hierarchical in nature, and their members were often also engaged in anticapitalist and environmental justice movements (Szolucha 2022).…”

“Jobbos” and the “wageless life”: Exploring work and responsibility in the anti‐fracking movement in Lancashire, United Kingdom

“…I'm putting in so many hours now, probably many more than people going to work every day!” (fieldnotes, February 4, 2019). She and other activists carefully recorded their monitoring in logbooks and online livestreams, spending many hours at the roadside and sometimes doing several night shifts in a row (for a detailed description of this practice, see Szolucha, 2021). The information collected was circulated in social media groups online, where activists kept each other updated about events on‐site.…”