![Sample our Social Sciences journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/110822/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Social-Sciences.jpg"})
Abstract
On a global scale, the share of energy produced from biomass in total energy production has significantly increased in recent years. At the same time, the ecological and social risks and benefits related to the increasing production of bioenergy are not yet fully understood. From a social perspective, bioenergy has often been promoted as a promising development strategy for rural development. Little research, however, has explicitly addressed questions as to whether the current developments in bioenergy production actually lead to noticeable changes in rural living conditions. In this article we thus present the results of an exploratory investigation of the perceived impacts of bioenergy production on the quality of life of the rural population in the federal state of Brandenburg, Germany. For this purpose, a survey instrument was developed based on the theoretical concept of quality of life adapted specifically for the case of bioenergy. The analysis revealed that the perceptions of impacts on general living conditions in the region are considerably more pronounced than perceptions of impacts on the personal living environment. Statistically significant linkages between the impacts of bioenergy and life satisfaction could be identified primarily for nature and ecology-related effects.
Notes
1. Exceptions include the edited book of Rutz and Janssen (Citation2014), as well as a series of publications of a special section on the Socioeconomic Dimensions of US Bioenergy as published in Biomass and Bioenergy, Vol. 35, No. 4, April 2011. With a focus on global effects, the project Global-Bio-Pact (http://www.globalbiopact.eu/) provides valuable input.
2. Forums included, for example, the forum of the Schwedt/Oder community, online available at: http://410592.forumromanum.com/member/forum/forum.php?&USER=user_410592&onsearch=1.
3. Organizations included, for example, the NABU Brandenburg, Landfrauenverbund Brandenburg, ADFC Brandenburg etc.
4. Different research approaches often require a very specific understanding and thus definition of the terms used. Because, however, the objective of this study is to capture the perceived rather than the actual effects, the terminology in this study was deliberately chosen to encompass mainly broader keywords such as “biomass”, “bioenergy” or “biogas”.
5. There are currently almost 9000 biogas production facilities in Germany (www.statista.com). Because biofuels (i.e. in Germany primarily bioethanol and biodiesel) are generally produced in few, large-scale production facilities, it was specifically asked for biogas production facilities in this question.
6. Bartlett’s test of sphericity exhibited a p-value of .000, thereby further confirming this approach.
7. A reduction in items could not further improve the Cronbach’s α.
8. It can be assumed that those respondents who feel well-informed about the topic are also more familiar with the media discourse.
9. The question was answered by 94 of 110 participants in the study. The other 16 participants stated that they did not perceive any impacts of bioenergy on the biodiversity of their region. They were therefore not asked about their satisfaction with the impacts of bioenergy on the biodiversity of their region.
10. One hundred and one of 110 participants responded to the question.
11. Ninety of 110 participants responded to the question.
12. Seventy-one of 110 participants responded to the question.
13. Eighty-six of 110 participants responded to the question.
14. Ninety of 110 participants responded to the question.
15. It is frequently argued that nonparametric tests are more appropriate for smaller data sets. The choice of the appropriate test method, however, does not primarily depend on sample size, but should instead be based on the specific characteristics of the data set. Accordingly, nonparametric tests are especially well suited in the case of non-normal distributions or for analyzing ordinal data (e.g. Altman et al. Citation2000). Because, however, the data of this study is normally distributed, t-tests were chosen as the appropriate test method despite of the comparatively small, but sufficiently large sample size (e.g. Fritz, Morris, and Richler Citation2012; de Winter Citation2013).
16. Because the items in the scale of environmental awareness were adopted from other, already validated studies on the topic, and due to the limited scope of this article, no reliability analysis or factor analysis was carried out. The items identified for environmental awareness were added together to form a Likert scale.
17. It should be noted here that there is a statistical difference between the groups; however, the more negative evaluation of the quality of life dimension is not necessarily related to the impacts of bioenergy. Other factors may also play a role here.