Contentious governance of wind energy planning

Contentious governance of wind energy planning: strategic dilemmas in collaborative resistance by local governments and citizen action groups

Verhoeven, Imrat (Universiteit van Amsterdam)
Spruit, Shannon (Populytics B.V)
van de Grift, E.M.H.R. (TU Delft Organisation & Governance)
Cuppen, Eefje (Universiteit Leiden)

2022

Local governments are at the heart of implementing increasingly ambitious national plans for wind energy. While support by local governments for these plans has been studied extensively, only few studies have looked into local governments’ contestation of wind energy development. In this paper we analyze contentious governance processes in which local governments join efforts with citizen action groups to oppose projects proposed by developers or the national government. We focus on the strategic dilemmas that local governments face while engaging in contentious governance. Uncovering strategic dilemmas helps to see contestation by local governments as part of a web of governance relationships, thus moving beyond dichotomous understandings of the players involved in wind farm conflicts. Strategic dilemmas also allow understanding of how stances of local governments and their citizen allies change over time, and how strategic and tactical considerations emerge from interaction patterns.

contentious governance
Local government
strategic dilemmas
strategic interaction
wind energy

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:7488f05d-899d-4bc5-9313-8a522f2e1e43

https://doi.org/10.1080/1523908X.2021.2023354

1523-908X

Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning, 24 (6), 653-666

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2022 Imrat Verhoeven, Shannon Spruit, E.M.H.R. van de Grift, Eefje Cuppen