ESRC/ISW Seminar 4 th November 2008 Queen’s University, Belfast Geraint Ellis School of Planning Architecture and Civil Engineering Queen’s University, Belfast Wind power and the “planning problem”

In what sense a “problem”?  The urgency to meet the challenge of climate change and issues of transition to low carbon economy. Leading to: A supply side problem of turbine production A location problem of grid capacity and landscape impacts etc A problem of performance of the spatial planning system A social problem of acceptance and perception A problem of differing values and expectations amongst stakeholders

Policy tensions in planning  Speed vs quality? Is fastest best?  Democracy vs efficiency? E.g. IPC  National interests or public opinion?  Relative priority on local or central policy?  Certainty or flexibility?  Outcome or process ethics?  Consensus or conflict?  “Objective” science or value-based decisions and contested knowledge

The importance of social acceptance  The impact on outcomes  The impact on process  The impact policy and leadership  The core value of participation  Notions of justice and the investor context

The understanding of social acceptance  The clash of values over: technology, governance, aesthetics, place, science  Poor conceptual tools  An emphasis on description of conflict rather than explanation: poor empiricism weak theoretical frameworks  Difficulties of generalisation

Emerging perspectives  Emerging perspectives: Rich case studies International comparative analysis Regulation theory Environmental psychology and place attachment Discourse analysis and the analysis of argumentation and subjectivity

Planning and social acceptance  If planning is a problem, what are the alternatives?  What role for planning in mediating wind farm disputes?  Planning as a solution?