Book contents
- Changing Senses of Place
- Changing Senses of Place
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Climate Change and Ecological Regime Shifts
- Part II Migration, Mobility and Belonging
- Part III Renewable Energy Transitions
- 10 Farming Landscapes, Energy Landscapes or Both?
- 11 Auto-Photography, Senses of Place and Public Support for Marine Renewable Energy
- 12 A Life Course Approach to the Pluralisation of Sense of Place
- Part IV Nationalism and Competing Territorial Claims
- Part V Urban Change
- Part VI Technological and Legal Transformations
- Part VII Design and Planning Strategies for Changing Senses of Place
- Part VIII Conclusion
- Index
- References
10 - Farming Landscapes, Energy Landscapes or Both?
Using Social Representations Theory to Understand the Impact of Energy Transitions on Rural Senses of Place
from Part III - Renewable Energy Transitions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 July 2021
Book contents
- Changing Senses of Place
- Changing Senses of Place
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Climate Change and Ecological Regime Shifts
- Part II Migration, Mobility and Belonging
- Part III Renewable Energy Transitions
- 10 Farming Landscapes, Energy Landscapes or Both?
- 11 Auto-Photography, Senses of Place and Public Support for Marine Renewable Energy
- 12 A Life Course Approach to the Pluralisation of Sense of Place
- Part IV Nationalism and Competing Territorial Claims
- Part V Urban Change
- Part VI Technological and Legal Transformations
- Part VII Design and Planning Strategies for Changing Senses of Place
- Part VIII Conclusion
- Index
- References
Summary
Social-ecological transitions are fundamentally about places – especially how place meanings and attachments act as lenses for interpreting change. Our chapter focuses on energy transitions in rural agricultural landscapes in New York. Agricultural place meanings underpin attachment for many residents, but are challenged by proposals for large-scale renewable energy development. This chapter explores how people interpret these proposed facilities using the perspective of social representations of place. multiple interpretations of proposed facilities are promoted by different groups based on their position towards the development: developers and energy advocates strategically portray solar installations as ‘farms’, replete with images they believe support agricultural meanings; those who resist these developments emphasise the large-scale industrialisation of the landscape and the loss of services such as open space and amenity value. These narratives of place contribute to understanding perspectives on energy transitions and broader rural change.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Changing Senses of PlaceNavigating Global Challenges, pp. 131 - 143Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021
References
Altman, I. and Low, S. (eds) (1992) Place Attachment, New York, Plenum Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-8753-4Google Scholar
Bailey, E., Devine-Wright, P. and Batel, S. (2016) ‘Understanding responses to a UK high-voltage powerline proposal: the role of place and project-based social representations’, Papers on Social Representations, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 2.1–2.24. Available at http://psr.iscte-iul.pt/index.php/PSR/article/view/55 (accessed 19 October 2020).Google Scholar
Bakke, G. (2016) The Grid: The Fraying Wires between Americans and Our Energy Future, New York, Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Batel, S. and Devine-Wright, P. (2015) ‘Towards a better understanding of people’s responses to renewable energy technologies: insights from social representations theory’, Public Understanding of Science, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 311–325. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0963662513514165CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beckley, T. M. (2017) ‘Energy and the rural sociological imagination’, Journal of Rural Social Sciences, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 69–97. Available at https://egrove.olemiss.edu/jrss/vol32/iss2/4 (accessed 14 October 2020).Google Scholar
Boudet, H. S. (2019) ‘Public perceptions of and responses to new energy technologies’, Nature Energy, vol. 4, no. 6, pp. 446–455. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41560-019-0399-xGoogle Scholar
Brown, L. R., Larsen, J., Roney, J. M. and Adams, E. E. (2015) The Great Transition: Shifting from Fossil Fuels to Solar and Wind Energy, New York, W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Davidson, D. J. (2010) ‘The applicability of the concept of resilience to social systems: some sources of optimism and nagging doubts’, Society and Natural Resources, vol. 23, no. 12, pp. 1135–1149. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08941921003652940CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Devine-Wright, H. and Devine-Wright, P. (2009) ‘Social representations of electricity network technologies: exploring processes of anchoring and objectification through the use of visual research methods’, British Journal of Social Psychology, vol. 48, no. 2, pp. 357–373. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/014466608X349504Google Scholar
Devine-Wright, P. (2009) ‘Rethinking NIMBYism: the role of place attachment and place identity in explaining place-protective action’, Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, vol. 19, no. 6, pp. 426–441. http://dx.doi/10.1002/casp.1004Google Scholar
Ingalls, M. L., Kohout, A. and Stedman, R. C. (2019) ‘When places collide: power, conflict and meaning at Malheur’, Sustainability Science, vol. 14, pp. 625–638. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11625-019-00689-6Google Scholar
Invenergy (2019) ‘Horseshoe Solar’ [Online]. Available at https://horseshoesolar.com (accessed 14 October 2020).Google Scholar
Masterson, V. A., Stedman, R. C., Enqvist, J., et al. (2017) ‘The contribution of sense of place to social-ecological systems research: a review and research agenda’, Ecology and Society, vol. 22, no. 1. http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-08872-220149Google Scholar
Masterson, V. A., Enqvist, J. P., Stedman, R. C. and Tengö, M. (2019) ‘Sense of place in social-ecological systems: from theory to empirics’, Sustainability Science, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 555–564. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11625-019-00695-8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKinley, J. and Plumer, B. (2019) ‘New York to approve one of the world’s most ambitious climate plans’, New York Times, 18 June [Online]. Available at www.nytimes.com/2019/06/18/nyregion/greenhouse-gases-ny.html (accessed 14 October 2020).Google Scholar
Moscovici, S. (2000) Social Representations: Explorations in Social Psychology, Cambridge, Polity Press.Google Scholar
Nye, D. E. (1999) Consuming Power: A Social History of American Energies, Boston, MIT Press.Google Scholar
NYISO (2019) ‘Interconnection process’ [Online]. Available at www.nyiso.com/interconnections (accessed 2 August 2019).Google Scholar
Petit, V. (2017) The Energy Transition: An Overview of the True Challenge of the 21st Century, Cham, Springer International. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50292-2Google Scholar
SEIA (2019) ‘New York Solar’ [Online]. Available at www.seia.org/state-solar-policy/new-york-solar (accessed 2 August 2019).Google Scholar
Smil, V. (2017) Energy Transitions: Global and National Perspectives, 2nd ed., Santa Barbara, Praeger.Google Scholar
Sovacool, B. K. (2014) ‘What are we doing here? Analyzing fifteen years of energy scholarship and proposing a social science research agenda’, Energy Research and Social Science, vol. 1, pp. 1–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2014.02.003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stedman, R. C. (2002) ‘Toward a social psychology of place: predicting behavior from place-based cognitions, attitude, and identity’, Environment and Behavior, vol. 34, no. 5, pp. 561–581. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0013916502034005001Google Scholar
Stedman, R. C. (2003) ‘Is it really just a social construction? The contribution of the physical environment to sense of place’, Society and Natural Resources, vol. 16, no. 8, pp. 671–685. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08941920309189Google Scholar
Stedman, R. C. (2008) ‘What do we mean by meanings “emergent themes”’, in Kruger, L. E., Hall, T. E. and Stiefel, M. C. (eds), Understanding Concepts of Place in Recreation Research and Management, Portland, USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, pp. 61–81.Google Scholar
Stedman, R. C. (2016) ‘Subjectivity and social-ecological systems: a rigidity trap (and sense of place as a way out)’, Sustainability Science, vol. 11, no. 6, pp. 891–901. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11625-016-0388-yGoogle Scholar
Stokowski, P. (2002) ‘Languages of place and discourses of power: constructing new senses of place’, Journal of Leisure Research, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 368–382. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00222216.2002.11949977Google Scholar
Tuan, Y.-F. (1977) Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Verbong, G. and Loorbach, D. (2012) Governing the Energy Transition: Reality, Illusion or Necessity?, New York, Routledge.Google Scholar
Voß, J. P. and Bornemann, B. (2011) ‘The politics of reflexive governance: challenges for designing adaptive management and transition management’, Ecology and Society, vol. 16, no. 2. http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-04051-160209CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wagner, W. and Hayes, N. (2005) Everyday Discourse and Common Sense: The Theory of Social Representations, New York, Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Wheeler, R. (2017) ‘Reconciling windfarms with rural place identity: exploring residents’ attitudes to existing sites’, Sociologia Ruralis, vol. 57, no. 1, pp. 110–132. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/soru.12121Google Scholar
Wiersma, B. (2016) ‘Public acceptability of offshore renewable energy in Guernsey: using visual methods to investigate local energy deliberations’, unpublished PhD thesis, Exeter, University of Exeter. Available at http://hdl.handle.net/10871/21565 (accessed 14 October 2020).Google Scholar
- 2
- Cited by