Wind Farm and Community Engagement Seminar: UK and European Field trip 2011
Dr Richard Hindmarsh
Associate Professor
Griffith School of Environment,
and, Centre for Governance and Public Policy
Griffith University, Nathan 4111
Brisbane, Australia
Email: r.hindmarsh@griffith.edu.au
Title: ‘Place-change policy design’ for wind farm and other transformative facility siting
Significant social conflict exists around wind farms in Australia, as elsewhere, especially at the local placebased rural community level. What exactly underpins this conflict for better understandings to include in
decision-making for enhanced community outcomes and renewable energy transitions? In a major
Australian project addressing this problematic, ‘spoils sense of place’ was found the key social variable
underpinning opposition to wind farm location (embedded in technical and top-down siting approaches). In
turn, what perceptions inform spoils sense of place regarding wind farms? Investigation turned from media
analysis to local ‘organised’ opposition or place protection for deeper insights. In analysing the perceptions
of community coastal and landscape guardian groups—at the vanguard in contesting wind farms as
arguably a new social movement in the context of localism, energy and sustainability—their key underlying
rationalities, or beliefs, values and attitudes, included potential loss of community empowerment by way of
‘outsiders’—developers, distant governments and overseas-based businesses—‘forcing’ wind farms on
them, and in that process spoiling environmental identity (or local place connectedness), community
cohesiveness, and other important aspects of local rural life. At the same time, other rationalities
supported wind energy transitions. Such rationalities, both pro and oppositional, appear enhanced through
inadequate and flawed community consultation. Certainly, the latter is the key governance issue of these
local groups. How do we do it better in societies based on concepts and aspirations of democratic
legitimacy? Policy lessons point to place-based collaborative policy approaches. Here, I briefly outline my
concept under development of place-change policy design to better understand and map local social
knowledges and qualifications for policy input about transformative or ‘radical’ place-change alongside the
technical mapping of wind for more effective renewable energy transitions and better community
outcomes. More broadly, place-change policy design has broader application for enduring and highly
contentious social and environmental problems of major facility siting at the local level across many
environmental management, policy and planning fields.
Richard Hindmarsh is Associate Professor in Griffith School of Environment, and Centre for Governance and
Public Policy (Griffith University, Australia); in Environmental Politics and Policy, and Science, Technology
and Society studies. He is also co-founder and convenor (2010-12) of the Asia-Pacific Science, Technology
and Society Network. He has produced six books and four special journal issues. Recent books include
Edging towards BioUtopia: a New Politics of Life and the Democratic Challenge (UWAP 2008)—a
foundational critical text on GMO regulation in Australia; and the edited volume Genetic Suspects: Global
Governance of Forensic DNA Profiling and Databasing (eds. with Barbara Prainsack, CUP UK 2010). He
focuses on socio-technical systems at the intersection of their socio-political, policy and environmental
issues, including genetically modified organisms; forensic DNA technologies; sustainable water systems;
and wind farms. The latter has led to broader interest in major facility siting posing ‘radical change’ on local
communities. Current research on wind farms is supported by the Australian Research Council, which has
seen keynote participation in two Asia-Pacific regional conferences this year, and invited panelist to the
(October) 2011 European Future Energy Forum. He has recently submitted a book proposal on the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, and is currently on a six-week international field trip probing
community engagement trends around wind farms for more inclusive avenues to achieve both better
community outcomes and renewable energy transitions.