Citizens’ self-mobilization, motivational factors, and the group of most engaged citizens: The case of a radioactive waste repository in Denmark

Ivar Lyhne, Sara Bjørn Aaen, Helle Nielsen, Lone Kørnøv and Sanne Vammen Larsen

Land Use Policy, 2018, vol. 72, issue C, 433-442

Abstract: Citizens’ self-mobilization has received considerable attention in literature on land use policy and environmental politics. Involved in this mobilization process is a group of highly engaged citizens, which are known by a variety of names in literature and acknowledged for their role in policymaking. To better understand this group of policy actors, the paper investigates the motivational factors that lead this group of citizens to invest numerous hours in policymaking. The case of the planning process of a radioactive waste repository in Denmark is used, since this topic is a well-known policy struggle in many countries. Bringing together theoretical insight into motivational factors, empirical data from a nationwide questionnaire, and interviews with a selected group of highly engaged citizens, the study shows that the most engaged citizens have a distinct set of motivational factors dominated by their perception of unfairness, collective identity, and knowledge of the case.

Keywords: Citizen self-mobilisation; Motivational factors; Social movements; Citizens; Participation; Fire souls; Radioactive waste; Denmark (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837717308566
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:72:y:2018:i:c:p:433-442

DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.12.053

Access Statistics for this article

Land Use Policy is currently edited by Jaap Zevenbergen

More articles in Land Use Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Joice Jiang ().