ID: 2030
Presenting Author: Jean Welstead
Session: 714 - Assessing Information: Conflicting Data Interpretation and Eroding Public Trust
Status: pending
This paper examines how socio-economic impact assessment is constrained by the applied science approach of EIA and how this shapes social responses and demotes local interests in favour of national.
Socio-economic Impact Assessment (SEIA), within an EIA, has been increasingly utilised in UK renewable energy (RE) planning applications. This paper explores how the production of objective knowledge for SEIA for onshore wind farms in Scotland prevents a more nuanced understanding of externalities born locally. It traces the influence of the scientific origins of and social influences upon SEIA processes, through to SEIA practice and the public participation efforts of wind farm developers and what this means for social responses and issues of justice. The central argument that emerges from the literatures (SSK, IA, public participation and social acceptance) is that despite advances in community engagement thinking and practice, contemporary approaches to the assessment of wind farm impacts continue to align with the social norms of science. This leads to the construction and use of SEIA as a technocratic product, with tendencies for it to be used to facilitate wind farm planning approvals. This qualitative research examined several case studies of wind farm SEIAs across Scotland including remote mainland and Gaelic speaking island communities. The findings demonstrate a strong focus on the production and delivery of facts to create a sense of certainty in the knowledge produced, excluding qualitative and social aspects. Additionally, the research shows how SEIA may be done differently through community-led processes enabling participation in decision-making and the building of trust. It offers new insights that emerge from relationships between the literatures.
Dr Jean Welstead is an independent scholar in environmental sociology. She holds a PhD Sociology (2024) examining how the knowledge production processes of SEIA shape social responses to RE.