Wind farm siting and protected areas in Catalonia : planning alternatives or reproducing "One-dimensional thinking" ?
Ariza-Montobbio, Pere (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)
Farrell, Katharine N. 1969- (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Department für Agrarökonomie)

Date:	2012
Abstract:	Wind energy is an emblem of sustainability with the potential to promote a qualitative alternative to current energy systems and nuclear options for CO2 reduction. However, wind farm siting often conflicts with aspirations to conserve traditional landscapes and wildlife habitats. In this paper we adopt a Critical Theory perspective, informed by Herbert Marcuse's work, to study the discourse concerning wind energy siting in Catalonia, Spain. We give particular attention to how tensions between potentially conflicting sustainability objectives are addressed and by whom. Based on a review of this siting discourse and the application of Marcuse's theory, we find that the Catalan wind energy siting discourse is both influenced by and reproducing what Marcuse referred to as the 'one-dimensional thinking' of technology as ideology: erasing the possibility of critical dialectical thought by subsuming the question of "what should be" under the question of "what is". This has implications both for how these conflicts are investigated and for the sustainability of decisions taken. We conclude that closer attention to the role of 'one-dimensional thinking' in wind energy siting discourses could improve not only the understanding of their logic but might also have the potential to help make them more democratic.
Grants:	European Commission 024688 Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación CSO 2010 21979
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Wind energy ; Protected areas ; One-dimensional thinking ; Wicked problems ; Discourse analysis ; Post-normal science
Published in:	Sustainability, Vol. 4 (2012) , p. 3180-3205, ISSN 2071-1050

DOI: 10.3390/su4123180

26 p, 640.6 KB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles