The future they want – or do not want: Shale gas opponents vs. proponents between local motives and global scenarios (with Philippe Zittoun, July 2014) (original) (raw)

In recent years, public controversies and social mobilization against hydraulic fracturing and shale gas exploitation have arisen in many countries. This has e led to different decisions marked in some cases by a certain degree of reversibility or uncertainty for the coming years. The variety of processes observed, both in North America and in Europe, can hardly be explained by the classic so-called “NIMBY effect”. Dealing with a more complex model of description, this paper will focus on how some stakeholders, opponents, and proponents at different scales of action and decision making – from local settings to the national or international realms – have produced consistent scenarios for the future, bringing together energy and environmental issues, specific economic interests, and general public goods and recruiting other stakeholders in their struggles for or against hydraulic fracturing. Through their participation in public debates and mobilization, many actors have tried to defend, contest, or revise the vision for the future and, more specifically, the future of energy production and use. By giving examples of arguments and counter-arguments of the various actors about the future of shale gas, the paper seeks to clarify the different ways and means by which policy actors and stakeholders attempt to grasp the future.

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