Patrick Devine-Wright

Psychological benefits of greenspace increase with biodiversity.

The worlds human population is becoming concentrated into cities, giving rise to concerns that it is becoming increasingly isolated from nature. Urban public greenspaces form the arena of many peoples daily contact with nature and such contact has measurable physical and psychological benefits. Here we show that these psychological benefits increase with the species richness of urban greenspaces. Moreover, we demonstrate that greenspace users can more or less accurately perceive species richness depending on the taxonomic group in question. These results indicate that successful management of urban greenspaces should emphasize biological complexity to enhance human well-being in addition to biodiversity conservation.

Harnessing Community Energies: Explaining and Evaluating Community-Based Localism in Renewable Energy Policy in the UK

In the UK a new theme has emerged in policy discourse and the investment of public resources around the concept of community renewable energy. A series of central government funded programs have been established with the aim of supporting and subsidizing community-based projects at a local level, an approach to renewable energy development previously the domain of alternative technology activists working outside of the mainstream. Drawing upon policy analysis and interviews undertaken with key actors, we argue that this new theme of government policy has emerged through a coalescence of largely instrumental policy drivers and does not represent a broader paradigmatic shift in the underlying norms and goals of policy. We consider the different ways the community label has been used and argue that while it has provided a exible space that activities, interests and objectives of various forms can occupy, its functional malleability also means that the communitarian expectations of participatory involvement are not being widely pursued or realized. Implications are considered for how, in the context of the governance of climate change, the outcomes of public investment in community renewable energy should be evaluated.

Explaining “NIMBY” Objections to a Power Line The Role of Personal, Place Attachment and Project-Related Factors

Public opposition toward new energy infrastructure is often labeled “NIMBYism” (Not In My Backyard), despite strong criticisms of the concept’s validity. Research on technology acceptance has followed two pathways: first, investigating the role of place attachments and sociodemographic characteristics; second, investigating project-related constructs such as perceived impacts, trust, and procedural justice. This study aimed to integrate these research pathways and deepen understanding of the specific role of place attachments by measuring intensity of attachment and specific varieties. A total of 503 residents of a town in South West England completed a questionnaire survey on proposals to construct a high voltage power line in the vicinity. A hierarchical linear regression analysis indicated significant effects of education, length of residence, the discovered variety of place attachment, and four project variables: positive and negative impacts, trust in the developer, and procedural justice. Conceptual, methodological, and applied implications of the findings are discussed.

Good Neighbours, Public Relations and Bribes: The Politics and Perceptions of Community Benefit Provision in Renewable Energy Development in the UK

The provision of community benefits has become a more common component of renewable energy project proposals in the UK. This raises questions as to the purposes these benefits are fulfilling and the ways in which they are perceived by the many different stakeholders involved in the processes of project development and approval. Are they seen as an effective strategic element in negotiations around planning consent; as a right for communities whose resource is being exploited, or who are experiencing the dis-benefits of technology implementation; or as a way of bribing or buying off protestors or key decision-makers? In this paper, we draw on evidence from a series of interviews with key stakeholders involved in renewable energy policy and development and from a set of mixed method, diverse case studies of renewable energy projects around the UK to examine the viewpoints of different stakeholders (including developers, local publics, politicians, activists and consultants). We discovered variation in the extent and type of benefits on offer, reflecting the maturity of different technologies, based on a number of rationales. We also found in the publics views a high degree of ambivalence towards both the benefits on offer (when they were known or acknowledged) and the reasons for providing them. The normative case for providing community benefits appears to be accepted by all involved, but the exact mechanisms for doing so remain problematic.

Introduction to the special issue: Place, identity and environmental behaviour

Abstract Research on identity has proliferated in recent decades, particularly within environmental psychology; the physical environment has been shown to have strong connections to a sense of self, and identity has proved to be an important mediator of behaviour. The concept of identity has been defined and measured, however, in a wide variety of ways. The goal of this special issue is to present some of the recent work tying identity to place and behaviour. In our opening essay we describe some of the distinctions among approaches to identity at different levels of specificity and scale and suggest some criteria to determine meaningful sources of identity, including impacts on cognitive processing, emotional responses, and behaviour. Although a monolithic framework is neither practical nor desirable, we encourage greater conceptual and methodological integration in future research on the interconnections among place, identity, and behaviour.

Green space, soundscape and urban sustainability: an interdisciplinary, empirical study

This paper addresses two typically separate issues contributing to urban quality of life: increasing noise levels and declining quality of public green space. Drawing from environmental psychology, ecology and acoustical methods, this interdisciplinary research studied the soundscapes of three green spaces in a UK city through interviews with 70 park users, the measurement of habitat and recording of sound levels. The data reveal a prevalence of mechanical sounds and a hierarchy of preference for natural over people and mechanical sounds. There was a link between sound levels, both objective and perceived, and the type of sounds heard. The presence of these sounds varied across sites in part due to the ecological qualities of the place, specifically the presence of birds and shrub vegetation. The results suggest that peoples opportunity to access quiet, natural places in urban areas can be enhanced by improving the ecological quality of urban green spaces through targeted planning and design.

Making electricity networks "visible": Industry actor representations of "publics" and public engagement in infrastructure planning

This interview study with UK electricity distribution and transmission network operators (DNO and TNO) and the regulator Ofgem, examines how key industry actors conceptualise “publics,” “stakeholders” and “customers” and how these conceptualisations subsequently inform their engagement practices with these heterogeneous groups. The results show that regulatory changes to the structure of distribution networks have encouraged greater levels of “stakeholder” involvement. However, DNO regional monopoly powers and the regulatory environment serve to conflate network actors’ representations of “the public” with “customers,” and also “hides” DNO roles in a manner that precludes direct citizen engagement. TNO respondents employ public exhibitions in transmission line siting, although at a stage “downstream” in the decision-making process whereby citizens have little decisional influence. We conclude that network operators adopt the rhetoric of deliberative engagement whilst lacking a clear rationale and effective means to incorporate citizen perspectives in long-term network development or specific infrastructure siting proposals.

Towards a better understanding of people's responses to renewable energy technologies: Insights from Social Representations Theory.

In the past few years, social research has been examining what contributes to the attitude–behaviour gap in people’s responses to large-scale renewable energy technologies. The NIMBY explanation for the gap has long dominated that area of research, but has also been criticised. Alternative proposals to NIMBY were advanced, but it is still evident that some of those maintain presuppositions of NIMBY and that this area of research needs more integration, namely at a theoretical level. In this paper we argue that to overcome those aspects it is relevant, first, to situate the promotion of renewable energy production as a social change process in today’s societies, and, second, to therefore consider the socio-psychological aspects involved in people’s responses to social change. We discuss specifically how the Theory of Social Representations may help us with that and contribute to a better understanding of people’s responses to renewable energy technologies.

Situational Influences upon Children's Beliefs about Global Warming and Energy.

This paper explores childrens beliefs about global warming and energy sources from a psychological perspective, focusing upon situational influences upon subjective beliefs, including perceived self‐efficacy. The context of the research is one of growing concern at the potential impacts of global warming, yet demonstrably low levels of self‐efficacy amongst both adults and children to effectively respond to this large‐scale environmental problem. Empirical research was conducted on a sample of 198 UK children and adults to explore the influence of a cooperative learning environment upon childrens beliefs about global warming and energy. A comparative design was adopted, contrasting 9–12 year old members of the Woodcraft Folk educational organisation with non‐members of similar age and with adult members of the same organisation. Results indicate that cooperative learning environments can have a significant and positive effect upon childrens beliefs about large‐scale environmental problems. In particular, Woodcraft folk children reported significantly higher levels of personal awareness and perceived self‐efficacy in relation to global warming in comparison to their peers. Secondly, unexpected differences were identified between levels of perceived self‐efficacy in children and adult Woodcraft folk. The implications of these differences for the design of educational programmes seeking to empower children to respond to global warming are discussed.

Putting pylons into place: a UK case study of public perspectives on the impacts of high voltage overhead transmission lines

The siting of high voltage overhead transmission lines (HVOTLs) is often subject to public opposition where affected communities seek to protect local places. This study explores the perspectives of local citizens affected by a proposed HVOTL to connect new nuclear power at Hinkley Point in Southwest England. A two-day public workshop was held with 38 participants in an affected line-site community, using deliberative focus group methods to explore perceptions of environmental and social impacts, risks, governance arrangements and technology choices. The findings show how potential health effects from electric and magnetic fields (EMF) and visual impacts are perceived to industrialise rural places, disrupt place attachments and provoke local opposition. The findings challenge the ‘not-in-my-back-yard’ assumption that citizens are selfish place-protectionists that lack the technical sophistication necessary to take a strategic viewpoint on transmission system development. They also reveal how decision making under the former UK Infrastructure Planning Commissions (IPC) (and its successor body the Planning Inspectorate) presents a challenge to procedural justice, as front-loaded developer-led consultation practices curtail citizen input to key decisions on alternative technologies (for example, underground or undersea lines). This is likely to exacerbate public mistrust of transmission system operators and provoke further organised protest.