The ontological politics of public acceptance surveys: performing NIMBY and the local opposition despite public acceptance paradox

Jacob A. E. Nielsen

Chapter 14 in The Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy Projects, 2026, pp 298-312 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: The chapter argues that to understand the seeming paradox of frequent local opposition to renewable energy technologies despite public support, it is productive to examine the ontological politics of how surveys help enact public acceptance. Science and Technology Studies (STS) approaches have illustrated that method assemblages help perform realities and that how realities are performed has ontological political implications. To explore these dynamics, the chapter examines the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ) Public Attitudes Tracker (PAT) survey in the UK to uncover how it enacts five layers of collateral realities. The collateral realities that the PAT survey enacts are characterised by nation-state representation, holistic and individualised publics, singular renewable energy technologies, spatial-temporal flatlands, and the taming of the problem of social acceptability of renewable energy technologies as singular, simple, and predictable. The chapter argues that these collateral realities enable and sustain the continued power of the Local Opposition Despite Public Acceptance’ (LODPA) paradox and NIMBYism, despite extensive criticism of these concepts.

Keywords: Renewable energy technology; Social acceptance; Public acceptance; Surveys; Science and Technology Studies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035348749
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781035348756.00022 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 403 Forbidden

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:elg:eechap:24041_14

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jack Sweeney ().