Pohle, Philip (2021) The Ecological Modernization Discourse and the Community Acceptance of Large-scale Wind Power Projects in the Netherlands: A Problematic Marriage for Policy-making A case-study of Windfarm N33. Master thesis.
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Abstract
The implementation of large-scale wind power in the Netherlands is lagging behind. Social acceptance issues – in particular community acceptance – have hindered the development of these projects. To research why community acceptance issues have not been properly addressed and resolved, this thesis examined the policy-making for ‘Windfarm N33’. This research expected, based on a literature review, that the overarching policy-making discourse of ecological modernization has hindered the inclusion of certain community acceptance factors in policy-making of Windfarm N33. This research identified four discursive tendencies of EM for policy-making; business-oriented, scientistic, techno-centric, and universalist. Discourses and their tendencies are relevant for policy-making as they shape and demarcate the frame of reference to what counts as a valid statement or argument in policy-making processes and hereby influence what counts as an environmental problem and what policies or instruments are subsequently considered to resolve it. To research how ecological modernization affected the policy-making of N33 with regards to community acceptance, this research conducted a single case study based on evidence derived from a documentary desk-study and semi-structed interviews with a qualitative deductive content analysis as its text interpretation method. All in all, this research found a clear resemblance between the policy-making of Windfarm N33 and the discursive tendencies of ecological modernization as the policy-making process showed a preference for technical and environmental factors relevant for shaping community acceptance while structurally neglecting other factors.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
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| Degree programme: | Environmental & Infrastructure Planning |
| Supervisor: | Zuidema, C. |
| Date Deposited: | 19 May 2021 15:21 |
| Last Modified: | 19 May 2021 15:21 |
| URI: | https://frw.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/3471 |
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