Explaining “NIMBY” Objections to a Power Line: The Role of Personal, Place Attachment and Project-Related Factors

doi:10.1177/0013916512440435

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Explaining “NIMBY” Objections to a Power Line: The Role of Personal, Place Attachment and Project-Related Factors

Journal Article•DOI•

Explaining “NIMBY” Objections to a Power Line: The Role of Personal, Place Attachment and Project-Related Factors

Patrick Devine-Wright¹•Institutions (1)

University of Exeter¹

01 Aug 2013-Environment and Behavior (SAGE Publications)-Vol. 45, Iss: 6, pp 761-781

TL;DR: Public opposition toward new energy infrastructure is often labeled NIMBYism as discussed by the authors, despite strong criticisms of the concept's validity, despite strong research on technology acceptance has proven that acceptance has follo...

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Abstract: Public opposition toward new energy infrastructure is often labeled “NIMBYism” (Not In My Backyard), despite strong criticisms of the concept’s validity. Research on technology acceptance has follo...

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Journal Article•DOI•

Psychological research and global climate change

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Susan Clayton¹, Patrick Devine-Wright², Paul C. Stern³, Lorraine Whitmarsh⁴, Amanda R. Carrico⁵, Linda Steg⁶, Janet K. Swim⁷, Mirilia Bonnes⁸ - Show less +4 more•Institutions (8)

College of Wooster¹, University of Exeter², National Research Council³, Cardiff University⁴, University of Colorado Boulder⁵, University of Groningen⁶, Pennsylvania State University⁷, Sapienza University of Rome⁸

24 Jun 2015-Nature Climate Change

TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that psychological research should inform efforts to address climate change, to avoid misunderstandings about human behaviour and motivations that can lead to ineffective or misguided policies, and suggest important directions for further research.

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Abstract: Human behaviour is integral not only to causing global climate change but also to responding and adapting to it. Here, we argue that psychological research should inform efforts to address climate change, to avoid misunderstandings about human behaviour and motivations that can lead to ineffective or misguided policies. We review three key research areas: describing human perceptions of climate change; understanding and changing individual and household behaviour that drives climate change; and examining the human impacts of climate change and adaptation responses. Although much has been learned in these areas, we suggest important directions for further research.

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381 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

Think global, act local? The relevance of place attachments and place identities in a climate changed world

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Patrick Devine-Wright¹•Institutions (1)

University of Exeter¹

01 Feb 2013-Global Environmental Change-human and Policy Dimensions

TL;DR: This paper reviewed interdisciplinary literature on place attachment and the related concept of place identity, drawing on scholarship in human geography, environmental and social psychology, and the implications of such research for evaluating area-based climate interventions are discussed.

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Abstract: Two decades ago, an article was published in Global Environmental Change proposing the importance of place attachments, at local and global scales, for understanding human responses to climate change (Feitelson, 1991). Despite concluding that ‘studies of individual's attachment to place may provide important inputs for strategies to enhance the prospects for sharing the globe’ (p. 406, 1991), the article remains overlooked. This article takes up and extends Feitelson's argument for more systematic research on place attachments and climate change. First, the paper critically reviews interdisciplinary literature on place attachment and the related concept of place identity, drawing on scholarship in human geography, environmental and social psychology. The review identifies a lack of cross-disciplinary dialogue, as well as several limitations to the ways that scalar aspects have been researched. Second, climate change research, encompassing adaptation, mitigation and communication that has incorporated place related attachments and identities is critically reviewed; in particular, emerging research on the role of ‘psychological distance’ is critiqued. The article concludes with five recommendations for future research: to capture place attachments and identities at global as well as local scales; to integrate qualitative and quantitative methods that capture constructions of place as well as intensity of attachments and identifications; to investigate links between attachments, identities and collective actions, particular ‘NIMBY’ resistance to adaptation and mitigation strategies; to apply greater precision when investigating spatial frames of risk communication; and to investigate links between global attachments and identities, environmental worldviews and climate change engagement. Finally, the implications of such research for evaluating area-based climate interventions are discussed.

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294 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

Re-visiting the ‘social gap’: public opinion and relations of power in the local politics of wind energy

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Derek Bell¹, Tim Gray¹, Claire Haggett², Joanne Swaffield¹•Institutions (2)

Newcastle University¹, University of Edinburgh²

13 Feb 2013-Environmental Politics

TL;DR: In this article, a social gap between the high support for wind energy reported in surveys and the low success rate for wind farm applications was identified, and three explanations were provided: democratic deficit, qualified support, and NIMBYism.

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Abstract: Our widely cited 2005 explanatory framework for considering public responses to wind farm developments distinguished two gaps: a ‘social gap’ between the high support for wind energy reported in surveys and the low success rate for wind farm applications; and an ‘individual gap’ whereby an individual supports wind energy in general but opposes a local wind farm (NIMBYism). The popular assumption that NIMBYism was the only explanation for the ‘social gap’ was contested. Instead, three explanations of the social gap were provided – democratic deficit, qualified support, and NIMBYism – and a range of different policy responses was suggested. This analysis is re-visited in order to take account of the theoretical and empirical developments since its publication. The original explanatory framework is expanded and revised and new conclusions are drawn about the likely causes of the ‘social gap’.

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282 citations

Cites background from "Explaining “NIMBY” Objections to a ..."

...…defined as ‘positively experienced bonds, sometimes occurring without awareness, that are developed over time from the behavioral, affective and cognitive ties between individuals and/or groups and their sociophysical environment’ (Brown and Perkins 1992, p. 284 cited in Devine-Wright 2012, p. 3)....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Re-focussing research efforts on the public acceptance of energy infrastructure: A critical review

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Jed J. Cohen¹, Johannes Reichl¹, Michael Schmidthaler¹•Institutions (1)

Johannes Kepler University of Linz¹

01 Nov 2014-Energy

TL;DR: In this article, a conceptual definition of social acceptance for renewable energy systems is proposed, which is both explicit and allows for quantitative assessment, and this definition will aid future literature by clearly defining the goal of Social acceptance research from the outset.

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229 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

Assessing the sustainability of renewable energy technologies using multi-criteria analysis: Suitability of approach for national-scale assessments and associated uncertainties

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Mads Troldborg¹, Simon Heslop¹, Rupert Hough¹•Institutions (1)

James Hutton Institute¹

01 Nov 2014-Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews

TL;DR: In this paper, a multi-criteria analysis (MCA) is applied to assess and compare the sustainability of different renewable energy technologies or energy plans with the aim to provide decision-support for choosing the most sustainable and suitable options either for a given location or more generically.

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Abstract: Multi-criteria analyses (MCAs) are often applied to assess and compare the sustainability of different renewable energy technologies or energy plans with the aim to provide decision-support for choosing the most sustainable and suitable options either for a given location or more generically. MCAs are attractive given the multi-dimensional and complex nature of sustainability assessments, which typically involve a range of conflicting criteria featuring different forms of data and information. However, the input information on which the MCA is based is often associated with uncertainties. The aim of this study was to develop and apply a MCA for a national-scale sustainability assessment and ranking of eleven renewable energy technologies in Scotland and to critically investigate how the uncertainties in the applied input information influence the result. The developed MCA considers nine criteria comprising three technical, three environmental and three socio-economic criteria. Extensive literature reviews for each of the selected criteria were carried out and the information gathered was used with MCA to provide a ranking of the renewable energy alternatives. The reviewed criteria values were generally found to have wide ranges for each technology. To account for this uncertainty in the applied input information, each of the criteria values were defined by probability distributions and the MCA run using Monte Carlo simulation. Hereby a probabilistic ranking of the renewable energy technologies was provided. We show that the ranking provided by the MCA in our specific case is highly uncertain due to the uncertain input information. We conclude that it is important that future MCA studies address these uncertainties explicitly, when assessing the sustainability of different energy projects to obtain more robust results and ensure better informed decision-making.

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219 citations

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References

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Discovering statistics using SPSS, 2nd ed.

[...]

Andy Field

01 Jan 2005

5,516 citations

"Explaining “NIMBY” Objections to a ..." refers background in this paper

...Aside from these, intercorrelations were low enough to suggest that multicollinearity was generally not a concern (Field, 2011).3 The lack of variance in the power line acceptance scale was viewed as a constraint that contravened an assumption of linear regression (Field, 2011)....
[...]
...Correlation analysis of the predictor variables indicated no variables with high levels of association (i.e., >0.8; Field, 2011 [see Table 5])....
[...]
...Aside from these, intercorrelations were low enough to suggest that multicollinearity was generally not a concern (Field, 2011)....
[...]
...The lack of variance in the power line acceptance scale was viewed as a constraint that contravened an assumption of linear regression (Field, 2011)....
[...]

Journal Article•DOI•

Toward a Social Psychology of Place: Predicting Behavior from Place-Based Cognitions, Attitude, and Identity

[...]

Richard C. Stedman¹•Institutions (1)

Pennsylvania State University¹

01 Sep 2002-Environment and Behavior

TL;DR: A survey of property owners in Vilas County, Wisconsin revealed the importance of symbolic meanings as underpinning both place satisfaction, conceptualized as an attitude toward a setting, and attachment, conceptualised as personal identification with a setting as discussed by the authors.

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Abstract: Sense-of-place writings have proliferated in recent years, yet research suffers from a relative lack of construct clarity and hypothesis testing. This research presents a model of sense of place based in conventional social psychology: cognitions, attitudes, identities, and behavioral intentions located in and fundamentally about place. A survey of property owners in Vilas County, Wisconsin, revealed the importance of symbolic meanings as underpinning both place satisfaction, conceptualized as an attitude toward a setting, and attachment, conceptualized as personal identification with a setting. In turn, attachment, satisfaction, and meanings all have independent effects on willingness to engage in behaviors that maintain or enhance valued attributes of the setting.

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1,286 citations

Additional excerpts

...These studies, along with many others in the field (e.g., Hernández, Hidalgo, Salazar-Laplace, & Hess, 2007; Stedman, 2002), typically operationalize place attachment in terms of the intensity of a positive emotional bond between an individual and a specific location....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Beyond NIMBYism: Towards an integrated framework for understanding public perceptions of wind energy

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Patrick Devine-Wright¹•Institutions (1)

De Montfort University¹

01 Apr 2005-Wind Energy

TL;DR: A review of existing research on public perceptions of wind energy, where opposition is typically characterized by the NIMBY (not in my back yard) concept, can be found in this paper.

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Abstract: It is widely recognised that public acceptability often poses a barrier towards renewable energy development. This article reviews existing research on public perceptions of wind energy, where opposition is typically characterized by the NIMBY (not in my back yard) concept. The objectives of the article are to provide a critical assessment of past research and an integrated, multidimensional framework to guide future work. Six distinct strands of research are identified, summarized and critiqued: public support for switching from conventional energy sources to wind energy; aspects of turbines associated with negative perceptions; the impact of physical proximity to turbines; acceptance over time of wind farms; NIMBYism as an explanation for negative perceptions; and, finally, the impact of local involvement on perceptions. Research across these strands is characterized by opinion poll studies of general beliefs and case studies of perceptions of specific developments. In both cases, research is fragmented and has failed to adequately explain, rather than merely describe, perceptual processes. The article argues for more theoretically informed empirical research, grounded in social science concepts and methods. A multidimensional framework is proposed that goes beyond the NIMBY label and integrates previous findings with social and environmental psychological theory. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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1,176 citations

"Explaining “NIMBY” Objections to a ..." refers background in this paper

...Such opposition is commonly labeled “NIMBYism” (Not In My Back Yard; Devine-Wright, 2005), defined by Dear (1992) as “the protectionist attitudes of and oppositional tactics adopted by community groups facing an unwelcome development in their neighbourhood” (p....
[...]
...Email: p.g.devine-wright@exeter.ac.uk Public opposition toward new energy infrastructure is often labeled “NIMBYism” (Not In My Backyard), despite strong criticisms of the concept’s validity....
[...]
...Such opposition is commonly labeled “NIMBYism” (Not In My Back Yard; Devine-Wright, 2005), defined by Dear (1992) as “the protectionist attitudes of and oppositional tactics adopted by community groups facing an unwelcome development in their neighbourhood” (p. 288)....
[...]
...Despite this diversity, they have led academics to consistently argue that “NIMBYism” is unhelpful and that public acceptance will be enhanced by more participatory decision-making procedures (e.g., Bell, Gray, & Haggett, 2005; Devine-Wright, 2011b), contrasted with a “top down” model of technology siting (Wolsink, 2007)....
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...Bell et al. (2005) argued that a lack of opportunities to participate was a more valid explanation for public objections than “NIMBYism.”...
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Journal Article•DOI•

Rethinking NIMBYism: The role of place attachment and place identity in explaining place‐protective action

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Patrick Devine-Wright¹•Institutions (1)

University of Manchester¹

01 Nov 2009-Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology

TL;DR: In this paper, a framework of place change is proposed encompassing stages of becoming aware, interpreting, evaluating, coping and acting, with each stage conceived at multiple levels of analysis, from intrapersonal to socio-cultural.

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Abstract: The ‘NIMBY’ (Not In My Back Yard) concept is commonly used to explain public opposition to new developments near homes and communities, particularly arising from energy technologies such as wind farms or electricity pylons. Despite its common use, the concept has been extensively critiqued by social scientists as a useful concept for research and practice. Given European policy goals to increase sustainable energy supply by 2020, deepening understanding of local opposition is of both conceptual and practical importance. This paper reviews NIMBY literature and proposes an alternative framework to explain local opposition, drawing upon social and environmental psychological theory on place. Local opposition is conceived as a form of place-protective action, which arises when new developments disrupt pre-existing emotional attachments and threaten place-related identity processes. Adopting a social constructivist perspective and drawing on social representation theory, a framework of place change is proposed encompassing stages of becoming aware, interpreting, evaluating, coping and acting, with each stage conceived at multiple levels of analysis, from intrapersonal to socio-cultural. Directions for future research and potential implications of the place-based approach for public engagement by energy policy-makers and practitioners are discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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1,136 citations

"Explaining “NIMBY” Objections to a ..." refers background in this paper

...This approach argues for “NIMBY” responses to be reconceived as place-protective actions that arise when the siting of large-scale energy technologies disrupt preexisting emotional bonds and threaten place-related identities (Devine-Wright, 2009)....
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Journal Article•DOI•

For better or worse: Exploring multiple dimensions of place meaning

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Lynne C. Manzo¹•Institutions (1)

University of Washington¹

01 Mar 2005-Journal of Environmental Psychology

TL;DR: The authors explored the nature of people's emotional relationships to places in order to learn about the kinds of places that are meaningful for people, the role these places play in their lives and the processes by which they develop meaning.

...read moreread less

838 citations

"Explaining “NIMBY” Objections to a ..." refers background in this paper

...However, qualitative research has suggested that attachments are not purely positive and may incorporate negative or ambivalent feelings about a place (Manzo, 2005)....
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