Professor Patrick Devine-Wright
Professor in Human Geography

Abstract:
Renewable Energy and the Public: from Nimby to Participation

Throughout the world, the threat of climate change is pressing govern- ments 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 en- ergy 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 poli- cies 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.

Abstract:
Making electricity networks ‘visible’: industry actor constructions of ‘publics’ and public engagement in infrastructure planning.

This interview study with UK electricity distribution and transmission network operators (DNO and TNO) and the regulator Ofgem, examines how key industry actors conceptualise “publics,” “stakeholders” and “customers” and how these conceptualisations subsequently inform their engagement practices with these heterogeneous groups. The results show that regulatory changes to the structure of distribution networks have encouraged greater levels of “stakeholder” involve- ment. However, DNO regional monopoly powers and the regulatory environ- ment serve to conflate network actors’ representations of “the public” with “customers,” and also “hides” DNO roles in a manner that precludes direct citizen engagement. TNO respondents employ public exhibitions in transmis- sion line siting, although at a stage “downstream” in the decision-making process whereby citizens have little decisional influence. We conclude that network operators adopt the rhetoric of deliberative engagement whilst lack- ing a clear rationale and effective means to incorporate citizen perspectives in long-term network development or specific infrastructure siting proposals.

Abstract:
Think global, act local? (forthcoming) the relevance of place attachments and place identities in a climate changed world

Two decades ago, an article was published in Global Environmental Change proposing the importance of place attachments, at local and global scales, for understanding human responses to climate change (Feitelson, 1991). Despite concluding that ‘studies of individual’s attachment to place may provide important inputs for strategies to enhance the prospects for sharing the globe’ (p. 406, 1991), the article remains overlooked. This article takes up and extends Feitelson’s argument for more systematic research on place attachments and climate change. First, the paper critically reviews interdisciplinary literature on place attachment and the related concept of place identity, drawing on scholarship in human geography, environmental and social psychology. The review identifies a lack of cross-disciplinary dialogue, as well as several limitations to the ways that scalar aspects have been researched. Second, climate change research, encompassing adaptation, mitigation and communication that has incorporated place related attachments and identities is critically reviewed; in particular, emerging research on the role of ‘psychological distance’ is critiqued. The article concludes with five recommendations for future research: to capture place attachments and identities at global as well as local scales; to integrate qualitative and quantitative methods that capture constructions of place as well as intensity of attachments and identifications; to investigate links between attachments, identities and collective actions, particular ‘NIMBY’ resistance to adaptation and mitigation strategies; to apply greater precision when investigating spatial frames of risk communication; and to investigate links between global attachments and identities, environmental worldviews and climate change engagement. Finally, the implications of such research for evaluating area-based climate interventions are discussed.

Abstract:
Enhancing local distinctiveness fosters public acceptance of tidal energy: a UK case study.

Tidal energy has the technical potential to form part of a low carbon electricity sector, however, its ‘social potential’ is less clear, as few empirical studies of public beliefs and responses have been conducted to date. This research addressed this gap by investigating a tidal energy convertor in Northern Ireland, said to be the first grid-connected device of its kind in the world. Data was collected from 313 residents of two nearby villages using mixed methods, guided by a conceptual framework that avoided ‘NIMBY’ assumptions and instead drew on place theory. Findings indicated strong support for the project, arising from beliefs that the project enhanced local distinctiveness by ‘putting the area on the map worldwide’; appeared visually familiar and helped tackle climate change. These positive beliefs outweighed concerns about outcome and process aspects, which were preponderant in one of the two villages. The project was interpreted to have few positive local economic outcomes, to potentially threaten local livelihoods and local ecology. Moreover, residents expressed cynicism about consultation procedures, and reported low levels of behavioural engagement. Implications of the findings for the literature on public acceptance of renewable energy, and for the emerging marine energy sector specifically, are discussed.

Abstract:
Place attachment and public acceptance of renewable energy: a tidal energy case study.

Efforts by many governments to mitigate climate change by increasing deployment of renewable energy technologies have raised the importance of issues of public acceptance. The ‘NIMBY’ (Not in My Backyard) concept, although popular, has been critiqued as an appropriate and valid way to explain local opposition. This study applies an alternative approach, empirically investigating the role of place attachment and place-related symbolic meanings in explaining public responses to a tidal energy convertor in Northern Ireland, said to be the first grid-connected device of its kind in the world. 271 residents in two nearby villages completed questionnaire surveys, three months post-installation, following up preliminary qualitative research using focus groups. Although results indicated predominantly positive and supportive responses to the project, manifest by emotional responses and levels of acceptance, significant differences between residents in each village were also observed. Contrasting patterns of association between place attachment and emotional responses suggest that the project enhanced rather than disrupted place attachments only in one of the two villages. In regression analyses, place attachment emerged as a significant, positive predictor of project acceptance in both places, affirming its value in explaining public response. Place-related symbolic meanings also emerged as significant, with contrasting sets of meanings proving significant in each context. Implications of the findings for research on place attachment and responses to land-use changes, as well as for developers seeking to engage with residents affected by energy projects are discussed.

Abstract:
Public engagement with large-scale renewable energy technologies: breaking the cycle of NIMBYism

In response to the threat of climate change, many governments have set policy goals to rapidly and extensively increase the use of renewable energy in order to lessen reliance upon fossil fuels and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Such policy goals are ambitious, given past controversies over large-scale renewable energy projects, particularly onshore wind farms, that have occurred in many countries and involved bitter disputes between private developers and local 'NIMBYs' (not in my backyard) protestors. This article critically reviews recent research into how public engagement is conceived and practiced by policy makers and developers, with a specific focus upon the UK. The review reveals a distinction between different scales of technology deployment, with active public engagement only promoted at smaller scales, and a more passive role promoted at larger scales. This passive role stems from the influence of widely held NIMBY conceptions that presume the public to be an 'ever present danger' to development, arising from a deficit in factual knowledge and a surfeit of emotion, to be marginalized through streamlined planning processes and one-way engagement mechanisms. It is concluded that NIMBYism is a destructive, self-fulfilling way of thinking that risks undermining the fragile, qualified social consent that exists to increase renewable energy use. Breaking the cycle of NIMBYism requires new ways of thinking and practicing public engagement that better connect national policy making with local places directly affected by specific projects. Such a step would match the radical ambitions of rapid increases in renewable energy use with a process of change more likely to facilitate its achievement. (c) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. WIREs Clim Change 2011 2 19-26 DOI: 10.1002/wcc.89

Abstract:
Disruption to place attachment and the protection of restorative environments: a wind energy case study

Deepening understanding of public responses to large-scale renewable energy projects is of academic and practical importance, given policies to lessen fossil fuel use in many countries. Although the NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard) concept is commonly used to explain public opposition, the concept has been extensively critiqued. This study applies an alternative approach based upon the notion of disruption to place attachment, and the theory of social representations, with a focus upon the symbolic meanings associated with a proposed project and the places affected by it. Empirical data is provided from a case study of a proposed 750 MW offshore wind farm in North Wales, using group discussions and ques- tionnaires distributed to local residents in two coastal towns (n 1⁄4 488). Results indicate significant differences between each town’s residents in their responses to the project, and how opposition arises from nature/industry symbolic contradictions: between a place represented in terms of scenic beauty that provides a restorative environment for residents and visitors, and a wind farm that will industrialise the area and ‘fence’ in the bay. In one of the towns, the data suggests that contradiction between project and place was experienced as a threat to identity for those with strong place attachment, leading to negative attitudes and oppositional behaviour. Levels of trust in key actors moderated the relation between place attachment and negative attitudes to the wind farm. The results provide further evidence of the role of place attachment in shaping so-called ‘NIMBY’ responses to development proposals, and challenge the assumption that offshore wind farms will prove less controversial than those onshore.

Abstract:
Public Understanding of Hydrogen: a theoretical approach.

The aim of this paper was to investigate public understanding of hydrogen energy using a particular social–psychological theory, namely, the theory of social representations to explore how processes of understanding generated lay knowledge of hydrogen energy. Using a free association method for data collection and multidimensional scaling for analysis, the results enabled the identification of themes in the data such as energy, environment, community, science and technology, and people and place, around which understanding was based. Processes of representation, such as anchoring to pre-existing knowledge, were seen as essential in guiding understanding. The results indicated that there were diverse influences involved in understanding and, although risk perception of hydrogen was acknowledged, community concerns were seen to override any negative effect of focussing on risk. The role of emotion in decision-making was highlighted as positive emotional responses to the Promoting Unst’s Renewable Energy (PURE), a local hydrogen storage project, resulted in hydrogen energy generally being positively evaluated despite acknowledged risks posed by hydrogen such as its explosiveness and flammability. Recommendations for policy include recognising that the combination of expert and lay knowledge plays an important role in public acceptance or rejection of hydrogen energy.

Abstract:
Trust and community: exploring the meanings, contexts and dynamics of community renewable energy.

Community renewable energy projects have recently been promoted and supported in the UK by government policy. A community approach, it is argued in the rhetoric of both government and grassroots activists will change the experience and outcomes of the energy sustainable technology implementation. In this paper, we consider how interpersonal and social trust is implicated in the different meanings given to community in RE programmes and projects, and in the qualities and outcomes that are implied or assumed by taking a community approach. We examine how these meanings play out in examples of projects on the ground, focusing on two contrasting cases in which the relationships between those involved locally have exhibited different patterns of cohesiveness and fracture. We argue that trust does have a necessary part to play in the contingencies and dynamics of community RE projects and in the outcomes they can achieve. Trust between local people and groups that take projects forward is part of the package of conditions which can help projects work. Whilst trust may therefore be functional for the development of community RE and potentially can be enhanced by the adoption of a community approach, this cannot be either assured or assumed under the wide diversity of contexts, conditions and arrangements under which community RE is being pursued and practiced.

Abstract:
Visible technologies, invisible organizations: an empirical study of public beliefs about electricity supply networks

Reducing carbon emissions in the energy system poses significant challenges to electricity transmission and distribution networks. Whilst these challenges are as much social as economic or technical, to date few research studies have investigated public beliefs about electricity supply networks. This research aimed to address this gap by means of a nationally representative study of UK adults (n1⁄41041), probing beliefs about how electricity reaches the home, responsibility for electricity supply, associations with the words ‘National Grid’, as well as beliefs about the planning of new infrastructure. Findings suggest that electricity networks are represented predominantly in terms of technologies rather than organisations, specifically in terms of familiar, visible components such as cables or wires, rather than more systemic concepts such as networks. Transmission and distribution network operators were largely invisible to members of the public. In terms of planning new lines, most respondents assumed that government ministers were involved in decision-making, while local residents were widely perceived to have little influence; moreover, there was strong public support for placing new power lines underground, regardless of the cost. In conclusion, organisational invisibility, coupled with low expectations of participatory involvement, could provoke public opposition and delay siting new network infrastructure.

Abstract:
Close to the edge, down by the river? Joining up managed retreat and place attachment in a climate changed world

Climate change is disrupting and will increasingly disrupt the geographies of people, places, and spaces. Countries such as Kiribati, originally inhabited by the Micronesians between 3000 BC and 1300 AD, and towns such as Shishmaref, Alaska, a traditional Inupiaq Eskimo fishing village with 400 years of settlement are planning for relocation. Vulnerable city and other authorities that are beginning to plan for `managed retreat'(1) (the relocation of communities and ecosystems) are only now starting to insert limited policy interventions such as setback regulations into their plans. In this commentary we begin to problematize the way most planners and policy makers are currently thinking about the managed retreat of people, cherished places, and spaces. We suggest how, through psychology research and literature, policies and plans for managed retreat and place attachment should and could become joined up. Our argument is that, if future policies and plans for managed retreat are to be implemented successfully, a great deal of further work is required since in focusing on the more ecological, technical, and economic that is, physical aspects of relocation, they have neglected important psychological, symbolic, and particularly emotional aspects of healthy human habitatsödescribed by environmental psychologists as `place attachment'öand that a failure to address this crucial qualitative aspect of relocation may fundamentally undermine wider policy and planning initiatives on adaptation to climate change.

Abstract:
Green space, soundscape and urban sustainability: an interdisciplinary,empirical study

This paper addresses two typically separate issues contributing to urban quality of life: increasing noise levels and declining quality of public green space. Drawing from environmental psychology, ecology and acoustical methods, this interdisciplinary research studied the soundscapes of three green spaces in a UK city through interviews with 70 park users, the measurement of habitat and recording of sound levels. The data reveal a prevalence of mechanical sounds and a hierarchy of preference for natural over people and mechanical sounds. There was a link between sound levels, both objective and perceived, and the type of sounds heard. The presence of these sounds varied across sites in part due to the ecological qualities of the place, specifically the presence of birds and shrub vegetation. The results suggest that people’s opportunity to access quiet, natural places in urban areas can be enhanced by improving the ecological quality of urban green spaces through targeted planning and design.

Abstract:
Rethinking NIMBYism: the Role of Place Attachment and Place Identity in Explaining Place-protective Action

The 'NIMBY' (Not in My Back Yard) concept is commonly used to explain public opposition to new developments near homes and communities, particularly arising from energy technologies such as wind farms or electricity pylons. Despite its common use, the concept has been extensively critiqued by social scientists as a useful concept for research and practice. Given European policy goals to increase sustainable energy supply by 2020, deepening understanding of local opposition is of both conceptual and practical importance. This paper reviews NIMBY literature and proposes an alternative framework to explain local opposition, drawing upon social and environmental psychological theory on place. Local opposition is conceived as a form of place-protective action, which arises when new developments disrupt pre-existing emotional attachments and threaten place-related identity processes. Adopting a social constructivist perspective and drawing on social representation theory, a framework of place change is proposed encompassing stages of becoming aware, interpreting, evaluating, coping and acting, with each stage conceived at multiple levels of analysis, from intrapersonal to socio-cultural. Directions for future research and potential implications of the place-based approach for public engagement by energy policy-makers and practitioners are discussed. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Abstract:
Social representations of electricity network technologies: exploring processes of anchoring and objectification through the use of visual research methods.

The aim of this study was to explore everyday thinking about the UK electricity network, in light of government policy to increase the generation of electricity from renewable energy sources. Existing literature on public perceptions of electricity network technologies was broadened by adopting a more socially embedded conception of the construction of knowledge using the theory of social representations (SRT) to explore symbolic associations with network technologies. Drawing and association tasks were administered within nine discussion groups held in two places: a Scottish town where significant upgrades to the local transmission network were planned and an English city with no such plans. Our results illustrate the ways in which network technologies, such as high voltage (HV) pylons, are objectified in talk and drawings. These invoked positive as well as negative symbolic and affective associations, both at the level of specific pylons, and the 'National Grid' as a whole and are anchored in understanding of other networks such as mobile telecommunications. We conclude that visual methods are especially useful for exploring beliefs about technologies that are widespread, proximal to our everyday experience but nevertheless unfamiliar topics of everyday conversation.

Abstract:
Psychological benefits of greenspace increase with biodiversity.

The world's human population is becoming concentrated into cities, giving rise to concerns that it is becoming increasingly isolated from nature. Urban public greenspaces form the arena of many people's daily contact with nature and such contact has measurable physical and psychological benefits. Here we show that these psychological benefits increase with the species richness of urban greenspaces. Moreover, we demonstrate that greenspace users can more or less accurately perceive species richness depending on the taxonomic group in question. These results indicate that successful management of urban greenspaces should emphasize biological complexity to enhance human well-being in addition to biodiversity conservation.