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A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
Leaving NIMBYs behind – Uncertainty within space-related conflicts over offshore wind farms in Scotland and Germany
Offshore wind farms are widely considered to become a cornerstone of energy transition for securing the energy supply and tackling climate change simultaneously. But recent developments have demonstrated that offshore wind farms are far from being conflict-free, evoking confrontations with other stakeholder interests. Drawing on comparative case studies in Scotland and Germany, this paper addresses and explores various conflict lines emerging from the installation of offshore wind farms and contesting local community interests and concerns. Local resistance against wind farms opens up a vast debate about the constitutive origins of the opposition which have previously been framed by NIMBY portrayals that are now rather denounced as being too simplistic, uneducated and parochial. Such considerations may point towards the appearance of locally rooted oppositions but do not provide profound explanations due to obscuring underlying rationales. By going beyond the stigmatisation of NIMBYism, the notion of space-related conflicts is intended to turn the attention towards conflicting interests and values that are aimed at space. This does not imply that such interests can be simply located at a certain ‘space’, but that these interests rather involve a spatial dimension in terms of representations and appropriations of spatiality. Conflicts over the development of renewable energy facilities manifest through practices stressing socio-economic and environmental impacts that are supposed to be disruptive to people and to what is regarded as ‘nature’. However, it is argued that these refer to uncertainties and claimed truths that are under negotiation during the planning and licensing processes. Hence, this notion rather points to discursive representations and assumptions of potential impacts which are supposed to be particularly informed by strategic spatial constructions in the sense of ‘geography-making’. While mostly reproducing discourses that are likewise applicable to and may coincide with those stemming from ...
Leaving NIMBYs behind – Uncertainty within space-related conflicts over offshore wind farms in Scotland and Germany
Offshore wind farms are widely considered to become a cornerstone of energy transition for securing the energy supply and tackling climate change simultaneously. But recent developments have demonstrated that offshore wind farms are far from being conflict-free, evoking confrontations with other stakeholder interests. Drawing on comparative case studies in Scotland and Germany, this paper addresses and explores various conflict lines emerging from the installation of offshore wind farms and contesting local community interests and concerns. Local resistance against wind farms opens up a vast debate about the constitutive origins of the opposition which have previously been framed by NIMBY portrayals that are now rather denounced as being too simplistic, uneducated and parochial. Such considerations may point towards the appearance of locally rooted oppositions but do not provide profound explanations due to obscuring underlying rationales. By going beyond the stigmatisation of NIMBYism, the notion of space-related conflicts is intended to turn the attention towards conflicting interests and values that are aimed at space. This does not imply that such interests can be simply located at a certain ‘space’, but that these interests rather involve a spatial dimension in terms of representations and appropriations of spatiality. Conflicts over the development of renewable energy facilities manifest through practices stressing socio-economic and environmental impacts that are supposed to be disruptive to people and to what is regarded as ‘nature’. However, it is argued that these refer to uncertainties and claimed truths that are under negotiation during the planning and licensing processes. Hence, this notion rather points to discursive representations and assumptions of potential impacts which are supposed to be particularly informed by strategic spatial constructions in the sense of ‘geography-making’. While mostly reproducing discourses that are likewise applicable to and may coincide with those stemming from ...
Leaving NIMBYs behind – Uncertainty within space-related conflicts over offshore wind farms in Scotland and Germany
Rudolph, David Philipp (author)
2012-01-01
Rudolph , D P 2012 , ' Leaving NIMBYs behind – Uncertainty within space-related conflicts over offshore wind farms in Scotland and Germany ' , 32nd International Geographical Congress , Cologne , Germany , 26/08/2012 - 30/08/2012 .
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English
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