Acceptance, acceptability and environmental justice: the role of community benefits in wind energy development

Cowell, Richard John Westley ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1639-8004, Bristow, Gillian Irene ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5714-8247 and Munday, Maxim C. R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9067-2481 2011. Acceptance, acceptability and environmental justice: the role of community benefits in wind energy development. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 54 (4) , pp. 539-557. 10.1080/09640568.2010.521047

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Abstract

Conflict around wind farm development has stimulated interest in ‘community benefits’ – the provision of financial or material benefits by the developers to the area affected by these facilities. By and large, both policy makers and researchers have couched the rationale for community benefits in instrumental terms, i.e. that an increased flow of community benefits will improve the social acceptability of these facilities and thereby expedite planning consent. This paper questions this conventional rationale. Proponents of this rationale neglect the institutionally structured terrain of the planning process; the provision of community benefits can shift in significance depending on whether or not the ‘affected community’ has any significant influence over wind farm projects. Similarly, our discourse analysis conducted in Wales shows that community benefits are seen predominantly as compensation for impacts, without any clear implication that they should change social attitudes. Our conclusion is that the dominant, instrumental rationale for community benefits obscures other, equally important justifications: the role of community benefits in promoting environmental justice; and how flows of community benefits might better serve the long-term sustainability of wind farm development areas.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Centre for Business Relationships, Accountability, Sustainability and Society (BRASS) Business (Including Economics) Geography and Planning (GEOPL)
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GE Environmental Sciences H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races T Technology > TD Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Renewable energy; Community; Compensation; Justice; Planning
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
ISSN:	0964-0568
Last Modified:	18 Oct 2022 12:36
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/10547

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