Understanding public perceptions of wood-based electricity production in Wisconsin, United States: the place-based dynamics of social representations

ABSTRACT

Public support is critical to renewable energy sector growth, an important element of reducing fossil fuel dependence and mitigating climate change. Prevalent understandings of public support for renewable energy projects often work within a binary framework of acceptance and non-acceptance, arguably unable to capture the nuances of localized public responses to specific projects. Taking a place-based approach and insights from social representation theory, we report on public responses to wood-based electricity production in Wisconsin, USA. Findings indicate that public responses are tied to social and cultural contexts, varying in relation to community histories and identities shaped by other community resources. These results suggest that public perceptions of renewable energy technologies are shaped by representations formed in socio-spatial context, offering insight to inform future decisions in the renewable energy policy process.

KEYWORDS:

• Public perceptions of technology
• bioenergy
• renewable energy
• place-based approach
• social representation theory
• bioelectricity

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the interviewees for participating in this study. Sam Sweitz, Richelle Winkler, and David Flaspohler also provided helpful comments on earlier versions of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation’s Partnerships in International Research and Education (PIRE) Program IIA #1243444 and Research Coordination Network (RCN)Program CBET #1140152, SES-0823058 as well as the Inter-American Institute (IAI) for Global Change Research CRN3105. Michigan Technological University’s Environmental and Energy Policy Program in the Social Sciences Department also provided support.

Notes on contributors

A. Banerjee

A. Banerjee is a doctoral candidate at the Departmental of Social Sciences, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, USA. Her doctoral dissertation work explores social dimensions of renewable energy systems especially bioenergy systems and how public policies can enable successful transition to alternative energy systems.

C. Schelly

C. Schelly received her Ph.D. degree from the Department of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA, and is an assistant professor of sociology in the Department of Social Sciences and the Environmental and Energy Policy graduate program at Michigan Technological University. Her work explores how residential technological systems shape the organization of social life and conceptions of human–nature relationships. She researches and writes about a wide array of alternative technologies and material systems used at the residential scale that lessen the negative environmental impacts of modern life, including solar technology adoption and the policies that support it, living off grid, intentional communities, 3D printing, and Rainbow Gatherings.

Kathleen E. Halvorsen

Kathleen E. Halvorsen is a professor of natural resource policy in the Environmental and Energy Policy Program at Michigan Technological University. Her work focuses on understanding how public policies can be effectively mitigate climate change through low carbon solutions, including renewable energy development and energy conservation. She also studies biodiversity conservation through policies aimed at facilitating community and landowner protection practices. Her publications have focused on forest-related bioenergy policy, public participation in land management decision making, interdisciplinary teamwork skill development, and public perceptions of climate change.