Explaining Factors Leading to Community Acceptance of Wind Energy. Results of an Expert Assessment

The present article deals with two key drivers of social acceptance of wind energy: procedural justice and distributional justice. It is based on a comparative expert assessment carried out in the frame of the Horizon 2020 project WinWind covering six European countries. The focus of the paper is on procedural and financial participation of citizens and local stakeholders in wind energy projects. The first part covers institutional arrangements for public engagement in two areas of the decision-making process—wind turbine zoning/siting in spatial plans and authorization procedures. Here, three levels of public involvement—information, consultation and participation—were analyzed. The second part examines active and financial participation of citizens and local stakeholders. Here, we distinguish between two different modes of governance: institutionalized forms of public governance and voluntary forms of corporate governance. The outcomes suggest that concrete paths to the social acceptance of wind energy are fostered via appropriate institutional spaces for public engagement. Furthermore, missing opportunities for active and passive financial participation can have strong negative consequences for community acceptance

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Rüzgâr Enerji Sistemlerinin Sosyal Kabul Dinamiklerini Anlamak (Understanding Social Acceptance Dynamics of Wind Energy Systems)

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.3418354 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Çağdaş Kılıç ◽

Mutlu Yılmaz ◽

Ramazan Sari

Keyword(s):

Wind Energy ◽

Social Acceptance ◽

Energy Systems ◽

Wind Energy Systems

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Meeting the challenges of public engagement, research impact and research participation as a baby and child lab

Research for All ◽

10.14324/rfa.05.2.15 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Gideon Salter ◽

Tina Altdörfer ◽

Geraldine Brown ◽

Malinda Carpenter

Keyword(s):

Public Engagement ◽

Developmental Psychology ◽

Effective Means ◽

Knowledge Exchange ◽

Research Participation ◽

Research Impact ◽

Research Process ◽

Future Research ◽

Young Infants ◽

Local Stakeholders

As well as conducting research in developmental science, baby and child labs face additional pressures. They must demonstrate public engagement and research impact, while also recruiting enough participants to conduct research, something that can be particularly challenging with infants and young children. These different pressures compete for time and resources, leaving researchers struggling to engage effectively in all such activities. Here we describe a low-cost, easy-to-implement, enjoyable and effective means of simultaneously addressing the challenges of recruitment, public engagement and research impact. It started with a process of listening and knowledge exchange with relevant local stakeholders to discern the interests and needs of the local infant community (including families, health professionals and businesses). This process led to the establishment of a fortnightly educational and support group for pregnant women and mothers of young infants, which met in the lab. This group combined peer discussion, presentations on developmental psychology, and ‘taster’ activities for mothers and infants from local businesses. Data collected from questionnaires from the first and final sessions indicated significant improvements in participants’ understanding of relevant concepts in developmental psychology, and showed that participants found this information helpful and reported using it at home. Participants also reported feeling more socially connected and more confident as mothers as a result of the group. The group also served to boost research participation, with 94 per cent of participants subsequently taking part in lab research or signing up to be contacted about future research. This approach can be employed by baby and child labs looking for ways to effectively and enjoyably promote public engagement and research impact, and for those looking to establish strong relationships with local stakeholders. The success of this strategy demonstrates that the aims of recruitment, public engagement and research impact need not be competing pressures on researchers’ time, but can be mutually supporting aspects of the research process.

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Social Investing Modeling for Sustainable Development of the Russian Arctic

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su14020933 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

pp. 933

Author(s):

Andrey Novoselov ◽

Ivan Potravny ◽

Irina Novoselova ◽

Violetta Gassiy

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Industrial Development ◽

The Arctic ◽

Expert Assessment ◽

Sociological Research ◽

Negative Consequences ◽

Social Investment ◽

Investment Projects ◽

Social Investing ◽

The Social

The method of the social investing of the Arctic subsoil users is considered in this article. As the portfolio of social investments is formed based on the interests of indigenous peoples, the authors used expert assessment and sociological research for social investing modeling. A two-stage procedure for forming a portfolio of such projects is proposed. An approach has also been developed for assessing and selecting investment projects for the Arctic sustainable development according to different criteria of optimality. The authors substantiate the need for a new approach to sustainable development of the Arctic, based not on compensation for the negative consequences of industrial development used in many countries, but on social investment. In this article the proposed approach is tested on the case of the Arctic indigenous community in Taimyr and the optimal social investing portfolio is justified.

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Open science: policy implications for the evolving phenomenon of user-led scientific innovation

Journal of Science Communication ◽

10.22323/2.09010205 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 09 (01) ◽

pp. A05 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Victoria Stodden

Keyword(s):

Citizen Participation ◽

Public Engagement ◽

Dna Sequences ◽

Public Involvement ◽

Research Process ◽

Scientific Activity ◽

Policy Implications ◽

Knowledge Generation ◽

Reproducible Research ◽

Treatment Research

From contributions of astronomy data and DNA sequences to disease treatment research, scientific activity by non-scientists is a real and emergent phenomenon, and raising policy questions. This involvement in science can be understood as an issue of access to publications, code, and data that facilitates public engagement in the research process, thus appropriate policy to support the associated welfare enhancing benefits is essential. Current legal barriers to citizen participation can be alleviated by scientists’ use of the “Reproducible Research Standard,” thus making the literature, data, and code associated with scientific results accessible. The enterprise of science is undergoing deep and fundamental changes, particularly in how scientists obtain results and share their work: the promise of open research dissemination held by the Internet is gradually being fulfilled by scientists. Contributions to science from beyond the ivory tower are forcing a rethinking of traditional models of knowledge generation, evaluation, and communication. The notion of a scientific “peer” is blurred with the advent of lay contributions to science raising questions regarding the concepts of peer-review and recognition. New collaborative models are emerging around both open scientific software and the generation of scientific discoveries that bear a similarity to open innovation models in other settings. Public engagement in science can be understood as an issue of access to knowledge for public involvement in the research process, facilitated by appropriate policy to support the welfare enhancing benefits deriving from citizen-science.

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Shotguns Vs Lasers: Identifying Barriers and Facilitators to Scaling-Up Plant Molecular Farming for High-Value Health Products

10.31235/osf.io/gwve2 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Jonathan Menary ◽

Matthew Hobbs ◽

Sara Mesquita de Albuqurque ◽

Agata Pacho ◽

Pascal M. W. Drake ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Acceptance ◽

Molecular Farming ◽

Qualitative Interviews ◽

Crop Improvement ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Scaling Up ◽

Barriers And Facilitators ◽

Horizon 2020 ◽

Plant Molecular Farming ◽

Health Products

Plant molecular farming (PMF) is a convenient and cost-effective way to produce high-value recombinant proteins that can be used in the production of a range of health products, from pharmaceutical therapeutics to cosmetic products. New plant breeding techniques (NPBTs) provide a means to enhance PMF systems more quickly and with greater precision than ever before, and have the potential to produce health and health-related products that are superior to current mammalian systems. However, the feasibility, regulatory standing and social acceptability of both PMF and NPBTs are in question. This paper qualitatively explores the perceptions of key stakeholders on two European Union (EU) Horizon 2020 programmes – Pharma-Factory and Newcotiana – towards the barriers and facilitators of PMF and NPBTs in Europe. One-on-one qualitative interviews were undertaken with N=20 individuals involved in one or both of the two projects at 16 institutions in seven countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Israel, Spain and the UK). The findings indicate that the current EU regulatory environment and the perception of the public towards biotechnology are seen as the main barriers to scaling-up PMF and NPBTs. Competition from existing systems and the lack of plant-specific regulations likewise present challenges for PMF developing beyond its current niche. However, respondents felt that the communication of the benefits and purpose of NPBT PMF could provide a platform for improving the social acceptance of genetic modification. The importance of the media in this process was highlighted. This article explores the justifications used by scientists for the use of NPBTs for crop improvement and suggests that the multi-level perspective framework is a useful tool for understanding the systemic factors that have shaped the development of PMF up until today.

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Coexisting with sharks: a novel, socially acceptable and non-lethal shark mitigation approach

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-020-74270-y ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Kye R. Adams ◽

Leah Gibbs ◽

Nathan A. Knott ◽

Allison Broad ◽

Martin Hing ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Acceptance ◽

Risk Mitigation ◽

Shark Species ◽

Negative Consequences ◽

Aerial Surveillance ◽

Potential Threat ◽

Social Surveys ◽

The Social ◽

Detection Probabilities ◽

Large Predators

Abstract Conflict between humans and large predators is a longstanding challenge that can present negative consequences for humans and wildlife. Sharks have a global distribution and are considered to pose a potential threat to humans; concurrently many shark species are themselves threatened. Developing strategies for coexistence between humans and this keystone group is imperative. We assess blimp surveillance as a technique to simply and effectively reduce shark encounters at ocean beaches and determine the social acceptance of this technique as compared to an established mitigation strategy—shark meshing. We demonstrate the suitability of blimps for risk mitigation, with detection probabilities of shark analogues by professional lifeguards of 0.93 in ideal swimming conditions. Social surveys indicate strong social acceptance of blimps and preference for non-lethal shark mitigation. We show that continuous aerial surveillance can provide a measurable reduction in risk from sharks, improving beach safety and facilitating coexistence between people and wildlife.

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Overcoming Barriers to the Community Acceptance of Wind Energy: Lessons Learnt from a Comparative Analysis of Best Practice Cases across Europe

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12093562 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (9) ◽

pp. 3562 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Pouyan Maleki-Dizaji ◽

Nicoletta del Bufalo ◽

Maria-Rosaria Di Nucci ◽

Michael Krug

Keyword(s):

Wind Energy ◽

Best Practice ◽

Success Factors ◽

Local Community ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Key Success Factors ◽

Community Acceptance ◽

Lessons Learnt ◽

Individual Assessment ◽

Wind Energy Development

Empirical evidence has shown that local community opposition is one of the key obstacles for new wind energy development. Consequently, the community acceptance of renewables, such as wind energy, has become a crux for Europe in both achieving and going beyond its renewable energy targets. Significant academic literature has already been devoted to conceptualising the community acceptance of wind energy. This article builds on the existing research by showcasing how regions and municipalities across Europe have successfully and effectively been able to overcome barriers to community acceptance. In doing so, 10 best practice case studies across six European countries have been carefully identified and investigated. The results of individual assessment of these different cases, each of which employ different types of measures/approaches, are comparatively analysed in order to identify the key success factors (drivers) for achieving community acceptance of wind energy in Europe. The identification of the success factors serves to start paving the way for the transfer of these measures/approaches to other municipalities and regions across Europe, particularly those who may encounter similar barriers of community acceptance of wind energy. Thus, our findings deliver to policy makers and developers a number of lessons learnt on how to organise future actions by proposing ways their activities can enhance community acceptance.

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