No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Does the "NIMBY syndrome" undermine public support for nuclear power in Japan?
Abstract
A key obstacle to nuclear energy as a decarbonization policy is the public perception of risks of radiation leaks from reactors. In particular, the “not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY)" syndrome suggests that individuals oppose nuclear reactors in their neighborhoods because they overestimate their risks. Arguably, such perceptions would be
acute for those who have lived in the vicinity of a nuclear accident. We conducted a survey-embedded experiment in Japan (N = 2574) to assess how the NIMBY syndrome influences public support for restarting nuclear reactors when health, economic, and climate change benefits of nuclear energy are highlighted. We focus on Japan
because the risks of nuclear energy became salient after the 2011 Fukushima accident. We test for two types of NIMBY effect, (1) respondents’ proximity to any nuclear power plant and (2) respondents’ place of residence in 2011 and its proximity to Fukushima. We do not find support for either the NIMBY syndrome or the Fukushima effect. On the contrary, we find support for a “reverse-NIMBY” among low-income residents, when they are treated with information on nuclear energy’s low local air pollution (health). Our findings suggest that support for nuclear energy varies across population groups and depends on how its local benefits and costs are framed.
... The contradiction between the two aspects of the NIMBY phenomenon (hereafter NIMBYism) contributes to the controversial nature of the phenomenon, leading to strong emotions among the public, planners, and developers. NIMBY positions have typical characteristics, certainly found in Israel, whereby a community generally supports the concept of a specific type of development or infrastructure and acknowledges the need for it, yet objects to its proposed location (Papazu, 2017;Uji et al., 2021;Wolsink, 1994;Zanocco et al, 2020). ...
... It is thus not a classic case of historically oppressed minorities necessarily being the sole or main potential victims of pollution or polluting energy infrastructure. To these two perceptions, we can add what is called the "NIMBY Syndrome", which describes situations where citizens and stakeholders object to the placement of infrastructure because they overestimate the risks that it might pose for them (Uji et al., 2021). However, different stakeholders and social or knowledge group may differ in their estimation of risk levels for the same infrastructure. ...
... However, different stakeholders and social or knowledge group may differ in their estimation of risk levels for the same infrastructure. In fact, studies found that in some cases, parts of the population welcome energy infrastructure or at least do not object to it (e.g., because it brings jobs, energy, or development to their region), thus offering evidence that NIMBY objection is not a given or even an automatic or natural response to energy infrastructure placement, even in cases of fossil fuel or nuclear energy facilities (Uji et al, 2021;Zanocco et al., 2020). Stronger or weaker objection to, or alternatively the support for, the placement of energy infrastructure in close proximity to a certain community could also be affected by factors such as geography, culture, political views, economic or employment status (Zanocco et al., 2020). ...
The NIMBY (“not in my backyard”) phenomenon, in which stakeholders oppose new land uses and activities in their vicinity, has been a subject of discussion for several decades. For energy infrastructure, it results from the apparent juxtaposition between the desire to maintain resident well-being and a healthy environment on the one hand, and the demand for energy, and maintaining an energy-intensive standard of living, on the other. Based on a review of the literature on energy infrastructure NIMBY, interviews with key informants, documents, and media analysis, this article analyzes the NIMBY phenomenon in the context of two recent energy-infrastructure development projects in Israel. Specifically, it addresses cases relating to gas treatment facilities, which are rarely the focus of other existing literature in this context. The case analysis indicates that decision-makers and planners mainly regard NIMBYism as an unjustified obstacle to infrastructure development, whereas objecting residents consider it an articulation of their dissatisfaction with perceived environmental threats, and therefore a legitimate and effective means to ensure environmental and social justice for themselves and for their community. The main insight is that expanding public consultation and engagement with planners and developers at earlier planning stages could reduce or modify NIMBY objections, as well as the perception of NIMBYism by developers and planners. We emphasize that understanding NIMBY narratives offers advantages to policymakers, energy companies, and planners and suggests potential strategies for all three.
... However, a more recent study by Uji et al. (2021) showed that climate change concerns do not drive the acceptance of nuclear power, possibly because the benefits of climate mitigation are not clearly visible and immediate. Nonetheless, climate change mitigation appears to be a significant factor boosting nuclear power acceptance in the United Kingdom, Finland, and France (Bickerstaff et al., 2008;Pidgeon et al., 2008;Teräväinen et al., 2011), i.e., in countries that have experienced nuclear power generation. ...
... People who live closer to them are usually less willing to accept it than those who live further. On the one hand, this is consistent with the observations by Huang et al. (2013), but on the other hand, this has not been confirmed by Uji et al. (2021) when evaluating the public support for nuclear power in Japan. ...
Small Nuclear Reactors (SNR) can provide climate-neutral, stable electricity and heating if located in people’s neighborhoods close to people’s dwellings. The extensive use of SNR would reduce capacity requirements for energy transmission systems and increase the overall stability of energy grids. However, the public fear location of SNR close to their homes. This paper hypothesizes that the public acceptance of SNR in the neighborhood is contingent upon knowledge of technology, fear of nuclear energy (NE), trust in the government, the expected increase of future electricity needs and the expected ability of renewables to cover these needs, environmental and climate concerns, and media exposure. We rely upon representative survey data from the Czech Republic ( N = 1,013, 51.2% female, aged 18–91, M ± SD: 47.7 ± 17.6; 19.6% with higher education). Methodologically we conduct exploratory Principal Component Analysis and a series of ordinal regressions. The results suggest that the knowledge of technology, trust in the government, the preference for NE expansion, and media exposure increased the acceptance of SNR, while fear of NE decreased SNR acceptance. The perceived replaceability of conventional energy sources with renewables decreased acceptance of SNR in most cases. Surprisingly, worries about climate change reduced the support for SNR. Women accept fewer SNRs located close to their residence compared to men. More educational effort is needed in the specifics of SNR technology and the environmental effects of SNR. Media proved to be an excellent way to start.
... For example, Thorpe (2015) finds support for prisons in the rural areas of the American South as these prisons are an important contributor to economic activity [46]. Uji et al. (2021) find that support for restarting nuclear plants when local jobs and low emissions of nuclear energy are highlighted [47]. Jerolmack and Walker (2018) find that rural residents in Pennsylvania support fracking in their backyards [48]. ...
... For example, Thorpe (2015) finds support for prisons in the rural areas of the American South as these prisons are an important contributor to economic activity [46]. Uji et al. (2021) find that support for restarting nuclear plants when local jobs and low emissions of nuclear energy are highlighted [47]. Jerolmack and Walker (2018) find that rural residents in Pennsylvania support fracking in their backyards [48]. ...
The proliferation of country and state-level net zero-emission commitments, rising energy costs, and the quest for energy security in the wake of the Ukraine crisis have renewed the debate about the future of energy sources. As opposed to elite discourse, the energy policy preferences of the public remain less explored. While many public opinion surveys report preferences for a specific type of clean energy, there is less work on understanding choices among different types. We explore whether support for nuclear over wind energy at the state level depends on how people assess the impact of these energy sources on health, local jobs, landscape disruption, and the stability of the electricity supply. Importantly, we seek to understand where people physically reside (and their experience of existing energy possibilities) might influence their energy policy preferences. We estimate multiple regression models with OLS with our original survey data of a representative sample of Washington residents (n = 844). We find that the physical proximity to existing energy facilities does not influence support for nuclear over wind energy. However, this support is shaped by the importance respondents attach to health (-), jobs (-), landscapes (+), and supply stability (+) dimensions of energy source. Moreover, the physical proximity to existing energy facilities moderates the importance respondents attach to these dimensions.
... The term "NIMBY syndrome" (not-in-my-backyard syndrome) was coined in the 1980s by social scientists to describe the resistance of communities to the construction of controversial facilities in their vicinity [29]. However, substantial evidence currently exists showing the "reverse NIMBY" for nuclear energy, highlighting the positive perceptions of people living in close proximity to nuclear power plants [30][31][32][33]. For instance, a similar study carried out in the U.K. in 2011 (n = 1326) reported a decrease in perceived risk and a positive attitude of people in proximity to the nuclear power stations at Oldbury and Hinkley Point [34]. ...
... Similarly, other evidence from the U.S. suggests that people living in proximity to nuclear reactors are less likely to perceive greater risk [35]. However, researchers from Japan found that proximity to the Fukushima nuclear power plant had no impact on public support for nuclear energy after the 2011 tsunami and nuclear incident [30]. This study provides further evidence that decreased proximity to nuclear power plants is associated with improved perceptions of nuclear energy. ...
Perception towards nuclear energy is a vital factor determining the success or failure of nuclear projects. An online survey obtained
attitudes toward nuclear energy, opinions on whether benefits of nuclear energy outweigh the risks, and views of using nuclear energy as an energy source. A total of 4318 participants from across the U.S. completed the survey. Logistic regression was used to predict perceptions of nuclear energy by participant demographics and geographical location. Participants living closest to Idaho National Laboratory (INL) were more likely to have positive attitudes towards nuclear energy (aOR: 7.18, p < 0.001), believe the benefits were greater than the risks (aOR: 4.90, p < 0.001), and have positive attitudes toward using nuclear energy as an electricity source (aOR: 5.70, p < 0.001), compared to people living farther from INL. Males and non-Hispanic
white participants were more likely to have positive perceptions of nuclear energy. Developing and implementing awareness raising campaigns for people living further away from nuclear power plants, targeting females and Hispanic whites, may be key to improving the overall perceptions of nuclear energy.
... The general public tends to overestimate the risks when assessing the effect of facilities on their living area [9]. Song et al. [39] show that a major obstacle to nuclear energy as a decarbonization policy is the public's perception of the risk of nuclear radiation leaks from reactors. Residents oppose the location of nuclear reactors in their community because they overestimate the risk related to these facilities. ...
... The causes of NIMBY conflicts, including those related to WTE projects, have been studied by numerous scholars from different perspectives. Previous studies either ignore the critical role of risk perception [6,8,[10][11][12][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37] or emphasize its role, but do not propose methods or indices for calculating and measuring changes in the risk perception of surrounding residents [13,14,[16][17][18][39][40][41]. We suggest that the risk perception threshold is a good indicator for determining changes in the risk perception of surrounding residents. ...
In China, waste to energy (WTE) projects are currently considered the best choice for dealing with municipal solid waste (MSW), but their siting often leads to conflicts. The perceptions of proximate residents to the changes and uncertainty induced by WTE projects are the main reasons for such conflicts. Determining the indicators used to measure these changes is crucial for an evaluation of surrounding residents’ risk perception. One indicator is residents’ risk perception thresholds. Our paper employs evolutionary game theory to deduce the risk perception threshold of surrounding residents related to a WTE project, which provides a novel contribution to the literature. The results of a case study and simulations show that the level of the risk perception threshold has a crucial effect on the behavior choices of surrounding residents. Two important parameters that affect the value of this risk perception threshold are possible economic compensation and possible resistance costs. A change to the values of these two parameters can change the value of the risk perception threshold of nearby residents. If the change in the risk perceived by surrounding residents is lower than the threshold they can tolerate, they will accept construction of the project. However, if surrounding residents are worried about this risk fluctuating as a result of construction of the plant, they will behave more cautiously and conservatively, and if the possible risk exceeds the threshold that they are willing to tolerate, then they will boycott the plan and protest against the construction of the project. In this case, the surrounding residents will still show restraint. This study tries to provide a theoretical and practical basis for effective resolution by government of the public’s risk concerns and existing or imminent conflicts.
... The NIMBY effect has been reported against hazardous chemical factories [26] and nuclear power plants [35], although this is the first time, to the best of the authors' knowledge, that it is reported for microalgal production facilities. Previous reports demonstrated that the expected benefits of a NIMBY facility including social benefits and job opportunities can promote public acceptance, although expectations about potential risks such as pollution, or an impact on health or safety can generate public opposition [36]. Thus, based on the responses received herein, it is of key importance to inform citizens about the many benefits of microalgae and microalgal production, as the trade-off between perceived benefits and risks is a critical determinant of the acceptance of NIMBY facilities. ...
... Thus, based on the responses received herein, it is of key importance to inform citizens about the many benefits of microalgae and microalgal production, as the trade-off between perceived benefits and risks is a critical determinant of the acceptance of NIMBY facilities. For example, local economic benefits can reduce public opposition to nuclear power plants in Japan [36]. Because of the many positive aspects of microalgal production, it is likely that a marketing strategy highlighting the benefits of microalgal production to the region would promote the acceptance of existing and novel production plants in the region. ...
The production of microalgal biomass and products derived thereof for a wide variety of applications is a hot research topic, with the number of facilities being built and products and biologically active molecules launched into the market increasing every year. The aim of the current study was to identify the attitudes of citizens in Almería (Spain) and Livorno (Italy) towards the construction of a microalgae production plant and a biorefinery in their cities and also their opinions about the microalgae-based products that could be produced. Overall, in Almería (Spain), a NIMBY (not in my back yard) attitude towards the construction of a microalgal production facility and especially towards a microalgal biorefinery was observed, despite the strong microalgal industry in the region and the higher knowledge of citizens about microalgae. In both locations, but especially in Livorno (Italy), microalgae-based biostimulants, biofertilisers, and aquafeeds were well accepted. Proximity was the main factor affecting the acceptance of a microalgae producing facility. Consumer knowledge about microalgal biotechnology and the health and environmental benefits of this valuable raw material are scarce, and opinions are based on drivers other than knowledge. After gaining more knowledge about microalgal biorefineries, most of the responses in Almería (47%) and Livorno (61%) were more positive.
... The Fukushima nuclear accident (FNA) in Japan in 2011 had a profoundly negative impact on global nuclear power development and greatly slowed its development [1]. After the FNA, public acceptance of nuclear power changed significantly around the world [2][3][4] and has become a key influence on nuclear power development in countries and regions that have been planning, constructing, and operating nuclear power plants (NPPs) [5][6][7]. Over the past post-Fukushima decade, numerous studies have made many contributions to understanding public acceptance of nuclear power, and scholars have identified several explanatory factors such as perceived benefits, perceived risks, government trust, and knowledge level [8][9][10]. ...
The Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan in 2011 substantially undermined global nuclear development, making public acceptance a particularly crucial influential factor worldwide. Although ample studies have identified factors shaping public acceptance, few researchers have paid attention to transitions in public acceptance and perception over the long term, and consistent observations of public acceptance across different periods of the same nuclear power plant (NPP) are particularly lacking. In this study we aim to fill this gap by exploring the transitions in public acceptance of a new NPP during construction phases including before licensing, during licensing, and during construction as well as differences in the influencing factors in each phase. We build up a unique dataset obtained from three rounds of surveys over 7 years in Huizhou City, China. The results reveal that public acceptance rises over time, and that underlying factors vary along with the development of NPPs and public relations campaigns at different phases. Perceived general benefits, government trust, and knowledge of a new local NPP continuously rise with public acceptance, and public perceived health risks continuously decrease over time. As a result, it is key for the government to understand the transition to public acceptance and perceptions of nuclear power and choose different communication strategies according to different phases.
... Many developing countries, such as India and South Africa, do not have advanced waste-to-energy facilities or systems to operate to their full potential of utilizing energy from waste (Dlamini et al. 2019). Even in developed countries, a series of protests against NIMBY projects have taken place in the UK (Kirkman and Voulvoulis 2017), Japan (Uji et al. 2021), and Korea (Kim et al. 2013). In this sense, the conflict resolution methods based on encompassing interests presented in our cases can provide a good reference for other countries for sustainable and integrated MSW management, which has become an issue of growing global concern. ...
Incineration is a crucial option for municipal solid waste (MSW) management. How to deal with the “Not In My Back Yard” (NIMBY) movement in the construction of incineration stations has become a global public policy issue. This paper explores the impact of local authorities on MSW management when incineration is adopted to process municipal waste. The study uses four open cases from news reporting as the research data and applies the social network analysis (SNA) method for empirical analysis. Our results suggest that intervention by local authorities significantly improves the level of MSW management. The paper shows the following promotion mechanism: local authorities reconstructed the selected incentives of the residents who participated in the NIMBY movements based on their interests rather than on oppression. This is fundamentally different from the literature on how centralized regimes deal with protests. This paper addresses the need to research incineration stations’ impact on MSW management. It provides a specific reference for formulating policy recommendations that are relevant to green finance for MSW management.
... The weight of these concerns regularly varies based on the specific project proposed. For example, opposition to wind farms may be based more on particular landscape concerns, whereas the concern for nuclear power plants (NPPs) may pertain more to worries about potential impacts on the environment and health (Uji et al. 2021). The government usually compensates community residents to overcome their opposition (Cowell et al. 2011), offset the damages and adverse effects of constructing infrastructure (Rudolph et al. 2018), and reduce income inequality (Goedkoop and Devine-Wright 2016). ...
Provisions for compensation have been widely used to handle siting difficulties in many countries. However, neglecting the factors that influence the residents’ willingness to accept compensation (WTA) for the siting of clean energy facilities for the long term has led to the failure of compensation, which could potentially cause stalemates or even conflicts in projects. Given the representativeness of nuclear power plants (NPPs) in the siting of clean energy facilities, this study chose the siting of NPPs as a case study. Moreover, an extended knowledge–attitudes–practices (KAP) model was constructed to explore the key factors that affect the residents’ WTA since this model excels at understanding individual behaviors. The results show that the WTA is extremely low. Knowledge has positive effects on attitudes, which is also the most significant predictive factor of the WTA. More knowledge leads to lower pollution perceptions but results in higher safety perceptions and pro-environmental values. Perceptions of safety and pollution mediate the relationship between knowledge and the WTA, but the mediating effects of pro-environmental values are not significant. The negative effects of pollution perceptions are greater than the positive effects of safety perceptions of WTA. These results may serve as a basis to improve public evaluation to handle crises in other countries and regions.
... The unfairness of decision-making and the potential risks of implementing a project are important factors that affect the occurrence of the NIMBY phenomenon (Botetzagias et al., 2013). According to Uji et al. government agencies can alleviate opposition by explaining the development of local economic interests (Uji et al., 2021). Public opinion is more in touch with reality than experts (Kortenkamp and Basten, 2015). ...
The issue of sea desertification has gradually emerged, and some scientists believe that it is caused by a decrease
in the concentration of iron ions in seawater. Based on practical experience in Japan and South Korea, it has been
found that the components of calcium, iron, phosphorus, and silicon in slag (Basic oxygen furnace slag, BOF slag)
can provide nutrients needed for algae growth. Making artificial reefs from slag can be beneficial for raising over-
all marine productivity. The annual output of slag in Taiwan is about 1.6 million tons. In line with the circular
economy policy, utilizing slag in artificial reefs to improve the marine environment is being promoted, which
also achieves policy objectives. This study investigates the concept of risk perception on public acceptance of the
policy to transfer slag into artificial reef construction. Finally, the research suggests that by utilizing scientific
communication to enhance knowledge transfer, and leveraging mainstream and emerging social media as chan-
nels of communication between the public and decision-makers, citizen participation and information disclosure
can be promoted, which would be beneficial for public acceptance of utilizing slag in the marine environment.
... According to Dear [49], the NIMBY effect is defined as "protectionist attitudes of and oppositional tactics adopted by community groups facing an unwelcome development in their neighborhood." The NIMBY effect has been explored to explain resistance against several energy sources, including oil and natural gas development [50,51], wind energy [7], and nuclear reactors [52]. However, the more recent research argues that the NIMBY effect is an inappropriate explanation for resistance, neglecting complex motivations and perceptions [20,33]. ...
Research indicates that local energy projects may disrupt different dimensions of people's sense of place, such as place attachment, causing local resistance within a community. Place-based concepts have therefore been extensively studied in social energy science to explain resistance to energy projects. However, what has been less studied is the integration of place-based concepts within a value-based framework to explain resistance. We present a conceptual framework wherein place attachment enhances people's value (utility) of a natural area by generating a person-place relationship. The framework bridges the concepts of values and resistance against wind energy, predicting higher losses of values from a natural area transformed into a wind energy site when a stronger place attachment is present. To test the conceptual framework, we conduct a discrete choice experiment (DCE) to assess the role of place attachment in the valuation of impacts of a place-specific wind energy project. Consistent with the framework, we find that place attachment (i) enlarges people's stated compensation to accept wind energy and (ii) increases wind energy resistance by leading to a higher propensity to choose the no-wind farm status quo option systematically across choice scenarios. Our results suggest that wind energy resistance should be recognized as a rational response when people value environmental amenities adversely affected by potential energy sites.
... Huh et al. (2020) compared the social acceptability of different types of wastewater treatment plant upgrading and expansion projects. Song et al. (2021) researched residents at sites of Japanese nuclear projects and found that low-income residents did not have strong NIMBY sentiments when they were fully informed that the nuclear energy projects were very safe and clean, as long as the benefits were reasonable. O'Neil (2021) believes that NIMBY project decision-making should pay more attention to the acceptance of the project by local residents' self-efficacy has a positive impact on public acceptance through perceived benefits and risks. ...
The frequent occurrence of nuclear NIMBY events seriously affects social stability and the development of the nuclear power industry. Exploring the evolutionary development of nuclear NIMBY events and their control strategies is an important proposition. Different from recent studies on the influence of static government intervention into public participation in the collective action of NIMBY events, this paper aims to analyze how dynamic government interventions affect the decisions of the public from the perspective of complex networks. To better understand the dynamic rewards and punishments, the motivation of the public in nuclear NIMBY events is treated as a cost–benefit decision-making process. Then, a network evolutionary game model (NEGM) is built to analyze the strategy selection of all participants who are connected by an interaction network of the public. In addition, the drivers of the evolution of public participation in nuclear NIMBY events are analyzed with computational experiments. The results indicate the following: (a) Under dynamic punishment conditions, the probability of public participation in protests decreases with the increase in the upper bound of punishment. (b) Static reward measures can better control the development of nuclear NIMBY events. However, under dynamic reward conditions, there is no obvious effect with the increase in the reward ceiling. (c) The effect of the combination of government reward and punishment strategies is different in different network sizes. At the same time, with the continuous expansion of the scale of the network, the effect of government intervention worsens.
... Others report this opposition concerning prisons [33], nuclear waste repositories [34,35], and waste facilities [36][37][38]. However, other scholars have noted instances of "YIMBY," in which local communities support "undesirable" industries in their backyards, primarily to secure local economic benefits [16,17,34,[39][40][41][42][43]. ...
Decarbonization policies are being stymied by political conflict. Local communities might oppose decarbonization infrastructure such as solar farms, mines, or transmission lines if they view these projects as imposing high costs on them in relation to their benefits. To decarbonize, the automobile industry seeks to shift from the internal combustion engine to electric vehicles, which require lithium-based rechargeable batteries. In the United States, to meet the increasing lithium demand through domestic sources, there is a proposal for a lithium mine in Thacker Pass, Nevada, which faces strong opposition from native nations and environmental groups. Using a representative sample of Nevada residents (n = 1,368), we explore if proximity to the Thacker Pass mine and to any Nevada mine influence public support for the proposed lithium mine. In addition, we test three frames that emphasize different benefits of the proposed mine: climate policy, national security, and local economic development. We find that respondents living closer to the Thacker Pass mine tend to be more supportive of the proposed lithium mine but exposure to existing Nevada mines does not affect public support. Among the treatment frames, only the national security frame increases public support. This suggests that to navigate local public opposition, the national security—domestic sourcing of key inputs
... While publications point to the relationship between environmental attitudes and the acceptance of nuclear energy (Wang et al., 2020), the matter is more complex. The attitude to nuclear energy may be influenced by the perception of one's own risks and benefits from the operation of nuclear power plants (Uji et al., 2021) or the public's feeling of ''energy security'' (Gupta et al., 2021). Nuclear energy has been leading to social protests, reactions from civil society and tensions in the public sphere from the very beginning (Aydın, 2020). ...
The aim of this article is to describe the potential of soft power as a tool for shaping energy policy and creating social approval for activities that are not subject to a real, open and independent public debate. The article analyses media coverage about nuclear energy in Poland. The analysis is based on empirical material which appeared in selected media from 2015 to 2021 and includes nearly 5,000 media messages. A quantitative analysis of the market value of the produced media coverage about nuclear energy has been performed. The main types of narratives and arguments used to support nuclear energy have been reconstructed. The author emphasises the possibility of using the concept of soft power in the analysis of media coverages, expert statements, political messages and advertising campaigns created in the context of promoting certain technology models and certain energy policy schemes. The soft power analysis is very appropriate in the context of disputes over the desired model of energy policy and shaping public mood in the face of the energy crisis. It makes it possible to expose the agents of the dominant message, the type of arguments used by them, and also to study in what direction energy policy is developed, what social atmosphere is being built towards the energy models promoted by the state, and what social attitudes are shaped towards them under the influence of soft power mechanisms.
... Existing studies concerning NIMBYism primarily focused on NIMBY facilities with significant hazards such as landfill sites [8,9], nuclear-related facilities [10,11], and solid waste incinerator siting [12,13]. Unfortunately, research on low-hazard NIMBY facilities such as CCPs remains insufficient. ...
Residents’ low behavioral willingness to dispose of waste in Centralized Collection Points (CCPs) seriously hinders the operational efficiency in waste collection of CCPs regarded as NIMBY (‘not in my backyard’) facilities. However, fewer researchers notice NIMBY facilities with low hazards. It has been ignored that the NIMBYism may influence behavioral willingness during the operation period persistently. Meanwhile, there is no consistent conclusions on internal factors of waste behavioral willingness, which deserves further study. Therefore, this study took CCPs as a research object and aimed to investigate how NIMBYism influences residents’ behavioral willingness to dispose of waste in CCPs. The extended theory of planned behavior and structural equation modeling approach involving 550 respondents were adopted to conduct the analysis. The results revealed that attitude (β = 0.295, p < 0.001), government trust (β = 0.479, p < 0.001), and perceived behavioral control (β = 0.222, p < 0.001) have statistical positive impacts on behavioral willingness to dispose of waste in CCPs. Perceived risk (β = ‒0.047, p = 0.022 < 0.05) can influence behavioral willingness negatively. Additionally, government trust (β = 0.726, p < 0.001) exerts a positive impact on attitude. Furthermore, relevant strategies were proposed to enhance residents’ behavioral willingness to dispose of waste in CCPs. This study is expected to inspire the government to formulate policies from the aspects of standards and regulations, resident participation, construction, and publicity. It will provide the government instructive suggestions for the smooth operation of CCPs, and ultimately building a healthy and environment friendly society.
... Resolution by means of benefit enhancement and risk mitigation to solve the NIMBY problem is possible. Research on strategies to overcome the NIMBY syndrome show that residents' possession of knowledge about a proposed project significantly reduces their perceived risks and increases the perception of benefits, mitigating local opposition to NIMBY facilities accordingly (Botetzagias et al. 2015;Liu, Liao, and Mei 2018;Uji et al. 2021). Compensation for the inhabitants involved for all external and social costs entailed by the NIMBY facilities and incurred primarily or exclusively by themselves is another approach to overcome NIMBY opposition to sites, for example, for electrical generation windmills (Groothuis, Groothuis, and Whitehead 2008) and incinerators (Chiou, Lee, and Fung 2011). ...
Objective
This study examines why people support a policy for separate cycle paths but oppose the necessary means for its implementation—the narrowing of vehicle lanes and reduction of roadside parking spaces.
Methods
This study used cross‐sectional data from the 2009 Taiwan Bicycle Use Survey, covering 23 counties ( n = 9236) and applying multilevel multinomial logistic regression models.
Results
Not in my backyard (NIMBY) or not in my interest (NIMI) were likely to agree on building separate cycle paths but disagree on the means for its implementation. While NIMBYs may support the policy if they are reasonably compensated with a much larger road area and an adequate number of parking spaces, NIMIs’ attitudes are more favorable if their government has sufficient financial resources to fund the proposal.
Conclusion
Local governments need to apply a compensation approach or have more funds to change the public's attitude toward the implementation of policies involving bikeway infrastructure.
... Similarly, an indicator to assess the potential impacts derived from accidents would also harm nuclear. The NIMBY phenomenon (not in my backyard) could also penalise this power system (Uji et al. 2021;Wu et al. 2021), in particular if reliable information is not conveyed to the population (Dai et al. 2019). ...
Electricity plays a key role in the economic development of any region and in people’s quality of life. Its global demand is steadily growing, a trend that is expected to continue in the future. Power plants are usually assessed from technical and economic feasibility points of view. Nevertheless, both the resources of the planet and its capacity to withstand human-induced impacts are limited. Therefore, it is necessary to consider environmental and social criteria at the time of assessing the most important types of power plants. This is the only way to achieve a sustainable electricity sector. Consequently, in this chapter six different multi-criteria decision making methods (MCDM) are described and applied to assess the sustainability of renewable and non-renewable power systems throughout their life cycles, from cradle to grave. In particular, three criteria were considered: levelised cost of electricity (economic), direct job creation (social) and climate change potential including biogenic carbon (environmental). The results of all methods are presented and discussed in depth, adopting different approaches.KeywordsSustainable developmentSustainability criteriaRenewablesNon-renewable power plantsMultiple attribute decision making
... Public participation has become an important force in monitoring the pollution behavior of manufacturing enterprises. However, there may be a series of problems such as the " NIMBY (not-inmy-backyard) syndrome " and mass incidents if the public is not properly guided, which are not only detrimental to social stability but also to local economic development [75,76]. Therefore, the government should guide and cultivate the public's rational awareness of environmental protection by strengthening the publicity of environmental knowledge, improving the public participation mechanism, and promoting the disclosure of environmental information, so that public participation can be effectively used. ...
Green innovation is vital for manufacturing enterprises to achieve a balance between economic, environmental and social benefits. This paper empirically investigates the mechanisms of government subsidies, R&D investment and public participatory environmental regulation on green innovation in manufacturing enterprises, selecting a sample of 1308 manufacturing firms listed on Chinese A-shares from 2010–2019. The results show that government subsidies can significantly promote green innovation in manufacturing enterprises, with private enterprises being more pronounced. R&D investment plays a mediating role in green innovation in manufacturing enterprises, while public participatory environmental regulation has a negative impact. The moderating effect of public participatory environmental regulation on government subsidies is different on different green patents, with a more negative effect on green invention patents than on green utility model patents. Public participatory environmental regulation has a negative moderating effect on the green innovation of state-owned manufacturing enterprises while having no significant effect on private manufacturing enterprises.
... It is quite frequent that EIA procedures become a sort of 'battle field' for two or more factions that, for many possible reasons (environmental, ideological, economic, social) strongly oppose or strongly support the project at hand: one of the most Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. straightforward exemplifications is the so called 'NIMBY (not in my backyard) syndrome,' which describes people generally favorable to a given typology of projects, provided they are not located near their dwellings (Brown and Glanz 2018, Boyle et al 2019, Uji et al 2021. ...
Every project development that could possibly have negative environmental impacts must undergo a technical-administrative procedure called environmental impact assessment (EIA), which ensures that all environmental implications are properly considered before making a decision and that negative impacts are minimized. Therefore, in many universities, technology-oriented master’s degree programs include EIA teaching courses. At the University of Firenze (Italy), one such EIA course module was complemented by a role-playing game in which students acted as typical characters involved in a (simulated) public debate concerning the possible development of a geothermal plant in a rural environment. The roles were designed with competing objectives and contrasting codes of conduct; therefore, the evolution of the debate and the final outcome (acceptance/rejection of the project) were completely in the hands of the players. The game was played with different classes, and the experience was successful. The students reported that the following objectives were reached: (i) they had fun; (ii) they put into practice some theoretical concepts learned during the lessons; (iii) they understood that aspects other than technical ones can be involved in decision processes and dealing with them without proper preparation is very difficult. This last point was considered particularly important, and demonstrated that this role-playing game represented a valuable complement to the main teaching activities.
... NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard) syndrome is characterized by residents' resistance to proposed developments near them. Opposition arises for various reasons such as environmental impact, visual appearance, noise pollution, reduced property values, interference with place attachment, and other factors [34]. Communities oppose the construction of nearby facilities but will tolerate/support them if they are built far from their settlements. ...
Concerns and fears about nuclear, both those originating from public and government perceptions, are examined in this paper. The NPP (NPP or PLTN) is a new energy in Indonesia; therefore, rejection is bound to happen. An overview of the work of NPP and the development of the latest fourth-generation nuclear reactor technology shows high security and safety features. A balanced and scientific study is carried out on issues that arise from the general public’s perception of NPPs, related to accident issues, radiation issues, waste issues, and social issues. Social issues related to nuclear issues are sunset technology and the NIMBY (not in my backyard) syndrome. There is no reason for people to be afraid of nuclear. The measurement of public acceptance is carried out by analyzing data from various countries, supported by the results of a questionnaire in Indonesia, showing that there is always resistance to NPPs Indonesian are ready to accept NPPs because more than 60% agree with NPPs.
... With the dissemination of information, environmental risk will be gradually transformed into social risk, which is manifested as environmental mass emergency and leading to the failure or shelve of NIMBY projects [8,9]. e dissemination process is influenced by many factors, including residents' risk perception, trust in government, project site selection, population density, public education, residents' income level, etc. [10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. Besides, stigmatization adds fuel to the transformation. ...
NIMBY (Not in My Backyard) projects are easily stigmatized due to their environmental risk. Stigmatization enlarges residents’ risk perception, urges residents to spread information, and takes actions to resist project implementation, causing environmental mass emergency. Taking paraxylene (PX) project as an example, information dissemination model of NIMBY project under stigmatization based on SEIR model in small world network was established, and the information dissemination process and characteristics of NIMBY project under stigmatization were simulated and analysed. The results show that (1) the public risk perception deviation caused by stigmatization promotes residents to disseminate information; (2) stigmatization has a greater impact on the information dissemination of NIMBY project with low environmental risk; (3) stigmatization accelerates the speed of information dissemination and increases the number of residents participating in information dissemination in different dissemination environment. The contribution of this paper is that SEIR model in small world network is used to verify the role of stigmatization in promoting information dissemination of NIMBY project by comparing the information dissemination before and after stigmatization.
... The term NIMBY emerged in the 1980s, due to protests by local communities against the location of a hazardous waste dump in their neighborhood. Since then, protests over the location of various types of facilities have begun to be addressed: wind farms [14,[50][51][52][53], livestock farms [54], prisons [55], hazardous waste landfills [56,57], biogas plants [58,59], homeless assistance centers [60,61], renewable energy [62,63], and nuclear reactors [64][65][66][67]. ...
The objective of the study was to demonstrate attitudes towards wind energy facilities in the area of the Korsze Commune. The results of the study were processed using structure indices calculated from the respondents’ answers, which were analyzed in terms of social and economic factors. The study revealed that both the NIMBY syndrome and the lack of civic engagement influence attitudes towards renewable energy technologies in rural areas. The NIMBY (“not in my backyard”) term describes negative public attitudes towards proposed development projects. However, some trends towards more pronounced attitudes can be observed, depending on socioeconomic conditions. The research results imply that the measures taken to promote renewable energy technologies should be designed differently depending on the socioeconomic situation of the targeted audience. Young people might be reached via social media appropriate to their age, and through campaigns promoting local investments. For older people, traditional ways of communication can be used, but the information transmitted should include specific benefits for the whole society as well as for individual households. The conducted research revealed that, despite the fact that many authors deny the occurrence of NIMBY syndrome in relation to the wind energy, the NIMBY problem has occurred in the Korsze Commune. The biggest challenge in the survey was the unwillingness of the residents to participate in it, which only confirms the lack of social involvement.
... In some cases, poor communities might support the location of "undesirable" facilities in their communities because of local economic benefits. SeeThorpe (2015) on the location of prisons in poor rural area andUji et al. (2021) on restarting nuclear plants in Japan in the aftermath of Fukushima. ...
There is overwhelming consensus about the science of climate change. Climate politics, however, remains volatile, driven by perceptions of injustice, which motivate policy resistance and undermine policy legitimacy. We identify three types of injustice. The first pertains to the uneven exposure to climate change impacts across countries and communities within a country. Socially, politically, and economically disadvantaged communities that have contributed the least to the climate crisis tend to be affected the most. To address climate change and its impacts, countries and subnational units have enacted a range of policies. But even carefully designed mitigation and adaptation policies distribute costs (the second justice dimension) and benefits (the third justice dimension) unevenly across sectors and communities, often reproducing existing inequalities. Climate justice requires paying careful attention to who bears the costs and who gets the benefits of both climate inaction and action.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Political Science, Volume 25 is May 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
... 12 In general, public opinion greatly influences policy design as well as its adoption, especially in democratic countries (e.g., Burstein 2003). In fact, within and outside Japan's context, a large strand of literature examines public opinion/support for nuclear energy, which is deemed to shape national energy policy (e.g., Poortinga et al. 2013;Uji et al. 2021). Additionally, studies examining public opinion response to the Fukushima disaster find that it had significant effects upon individuals' policy preferences, which has been linked to subsequent policy choices by governments (e.g., Poortinga et al. 2013;Latré et al. 2017;Böhmelt 2020). ...
We contribute to the growing literature on how political support for domestic policies that contribute to global collective goods is impacted by other countries’ policy actions. To do so, we focus on carbon taxation, one of the most important yet contested policy instruments for mitigating global warming, in the world’s third largest economy, Japan. Using a combination of two experiments embedded in a representative public opinion survey, we examine arguments relating to how the adoption and level of ambition of other countries’ carbon taxes affect the public’s preferences for current and future carbon tax designs. We find evidence that the choices of other countries affect both support for carbon taxation and preferences over its design. More ambitious carbon pricing in other countries increases support for carbon taxation, while less ambitious pricing reduces support. Moreover, information about lower carbon prices in other countries decreases support more than other countries having no carbon taxation at all. Public support for more stringent domestic carbon pricing thus hinges on the policy choices of other countries, contrary to other environmental issues. Our research also shows, however, that particular domestic policy design choices can help in mitigating otherwise negative effects of non-cooperative behavior by other countries.
... The unfairness of decision-making and the potential risks of implementing a project are important factors that affect the occurrence of the NIMBY phenomenon (Botetzagias et al., 2013). According to Uji et al. government agencies can alleviate opposition by explaining the development of local economic interests (Uji et al., 2021). Public opinion is more in touch with reality than experts (Kortenkamp and Basten, 2015). ...
The public's environmental risk coping behaviors affects the effectiveness of environmental risk management. This paper uses a structural equation model (SEM) to explore the mechanisms of public trust in governments and enterprises on different types of environmental risk coping behaviors (collaborative and confrontational behaviors) by using the residents, who live around the industrial area J and the waste incineration plant Q in city A in China, as the study population. This research adopts the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and some additional constructs (risk perception, interaction satisfaction) in the empirical tests to predict behavioral choices. The results show that public trust in governments has a positive influence on the intention to collaborate, and a lower level of public trust in governments and enterprises enhances the intention to adopt confrontational behaviors. Public trust in governments and enterprises can also indirectly influence the intention to collaborate through subjective norms, attitudes, and perceived behavioral control. Public trust in governments and enterprises can also influence the intention to confront through perceived behavioral control. The intention to confront is related to confrontational behaviors, but the intention to collaborate may not necessarily lead to collaborative behavior. Risk perception is not directly related to trust and the intention to collaborate, but risk perception and trust can alone influence to intention to confront. The reason for the public to adopt collaborative behavior is not that they perceive high risk, but that a high level of trust in the governments can increase the level of willingness to adopt collaborative behaviors. Government credibility plays an important role in guiding public risk coping behaviors. The findings of the study provide policy recommendations for guiding the public’s environmental risk coping behaviors.
Social acceptance is one of the key determinants in implementing successful regulatory frameworks and policies. The past debate of social acceptance is centred around NIMBY (Not in My Own Backyard) which is closely correlated with the case of wind energy. More recent literature introduces three dimensions of social acceptance, namely socio-political, community and market acceptance. Justice factors are increasingly recognised as being important for understanding why social rejection produces the outcomes. In this chapter, this study examines the current literature on social acceptance and energy justice and extends the discussion about how much of the literature on social acceptance and energy justice had been derived from the Western conception of justice that promotes freedom, equality and participation.
This chapter provides a concluding summary of the key findings of the book in the context of its study purpose and objective and recommends possible avenues for policy and future research.
This chapter analyses the citizen acceptance of nuclear power plant development in Indonesia by analysing minute of meetings of the parliamentary member responsible for energy issues, a nationwide and a provincial-based survey. The results suggest that both the public and the members of parliaments accept and agree the government’s plan to develop nuclear power plants. More than 50% of respondents support the development of the nuclear power plants. This suggests that perceived benefits such as cheaper cost of electricity and no power outage outrank the perceived risks.
Conflicts caused by NIMBY facilities pose significant threats to urban harmony and sustainability. Ubiquitous online access undoubtedly exacerbates social tensions, and discerning “who is doing what?” is critical for urban managers during crisis communication. However, communication patterns among online stakeholders in NIMBY conflicts have not been comprehensively investigated. Based on Social-Mediated Crisis Communication theory, this research crawls 66,831 Sina blogs to reveal the evolution of online messages and the interaction patterns of diverse stakeholders. Findings show that stakeholders release messages with different emphases and play different roles. Specifically, government functions as the “leader”, who plays a dominant role in online communication; news organizations function as the “bridge”, receiving and spreading information released by governments to other stakeholders with an efficient transmission function; media practitioners function as the “regulator”, mainly posting rumor management messages to clarify misinformation and alleviate social tensions; and citizen agents function as both “receiver” and “promulgator”, who receive information from other stakeholders and also disseminate opinions to other netizens. These findings can advance the existing knowledge body of NIMBY crisis communication and yield valuable inputs for evidence-based policymaking in conflict management in China and beyond.
This work proposes a discrete choice model that jointly accounts for heterogeneity in preferences and in decision making procedures adopted by respondents, as well as for non-linearities in the utility function, allowing for the potential effect of salient attributes in choice experiments. We present an innovative application in the context of preferences towards nuclear energy, with data obtained from a nationwide online survey conducted in Italy. Results show that most of the variation in the choice data is indeed due to heterogeneity in the decision process, where the saliency heuristic plays an important role. Furthermore, the proposed model provides more conservative monetary valuations as opposed to standard models, potentially leading to substantial differences in cost-benefit analysis. Implications for choice modeling practitioners are discussed, emphasizing the need to account for saliency effects when modelling the choice data.
Denna artikel analyserar den etiska legitimiteten i NIMBY-påståenden (Not In My Backyard) från medborgare som motsätter sig lokaliseringen av vindturbiner och kärnreaktorer. Dessa påståenden kan analyseras med hjälp olika strategier för att lösa rättighetskonflikter. Tre strategier studerades: hierarkisk rättighetsordning, specifikation av rättigheter och andra moraliska överväganden. En nyckelaspekt är hur respektive strategi fångar upp restplikter, de plikter som finns kvar gentemot den part vars moraliska anspråk övertrumfas. En framgångsrik strategi bör kunna fånga upp restplikter eftersom NIMBY-påståendenas moraliska anspråk ej försvinner utan snarare ökar i takt med lokaliseringens omfattning.
Aquaculture has received increased attention globally because as capture fishery production is stagnant, aquaculture remains the fastest growing food production sector (FAO, 2018). Without a change in demand, aquaculture must continue to grow to meet the demand for fish; but where will this growth occur? It is expected that when contemplating a change in an area, residents would decide purely on an evaluation of the costs and benefits of the addition. However, the literature has shown that change does not come as easy for people who prefer the status-quo (Kahneman et al., 1991). With a plethora of benefits, will the addition of an aquaculture site be so contrary to people’s connection to the area, that the change will be met with a Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) reaction? Two things must hold true to observe a real NIMBY reaction and, thus, show a relative preference for aquaculture expansion elsewhere: positive attitudes towards aquaculture and a free rider preference (Wolsink, 2000). Using aquaculture in Maine, we explore whether NIMBY responses are found and what types of people and attitudes are associated with NIMBY. Aquaculture is largely integrated in Maine’s economy contributing an estimated $137.6 million in sales revenue (including multiplier effects), over 1,000 jobs, and 56.1 million in labor income (Cole et al., 2017). Maine has an opportunity to continue to develop aquaculture; however, there are many other uses for Maine’s coastline. Attention to how regional differences in aquaculture perception and acceptance is key to crafting and implementing aquacultural policy that is favored by citizens and the industry across Maine. To do this, we must understand the NIMBY reaction to communicate effectively. To understand regional perceptions of the aquaculture industry, we draw from survey data collected by the University of Maine that has 833 respondents and an adjusted-response rate of 15.6%. This research explores how citizens view policy of expansion and restriction on aquaculture in Maine. We draw from a body of literature in economics to inform our model, utilizing a multinomial logit model to analyze our survey results. We find that despite citizen perceptions being quite diverse, there exists a statistically significant difference in support for expansion depending on where the aquaculture is being expanded in relation to where the respondents live. Furthermore, the differences in citizen attitudes are being explored through reported priorities for the Maine economy, environment, and attitudes towards the aquaculture industry. Interestingly, preliminary results have shown that those who had a NIMBY reaction towards the expansion of aquaculture were found to be different than the rest of the population both in demographics and their preferences towards the aquaculture industry. This study’s results highlight unique insights for policy makers and stakeholders to enhance how information is conveyed to citizens and where efforts to relay information would be best pursued.
One major challenge for the construction of waste incineration facilities (WIF) is the local opposition from the public, which is commonly known as the not-in-my-back-yard (NIMBY) conflict. In this article, we introduce the signaling game model for the first time to understand how information asymmetry will affect the decision of the public and the incineration plant during the construction of WIFs. The results show that, under the signaling game theoretical framework, the pooling equilibrium is the source of NIMBY conflict, and the imbalance in their respective expected returns plays a key role in this process. On the other hand, driving the game from the pooling equilibrium into the separation equilibrium is an effective approach to resolve NIMBY conflicts. We demonstrate the validity of the proposed framework by numerical simulations based on the results of three before-and-after surveys of locating the WIF in Songjiang district, Shanghai. The successful landing and operation of Songjiang's WIF prove that the effective combination of (1) active pollution reduction by the incinerators, (2) timely information disclosure, and (3) public engagement successfully contributed to the avoidance of the NIMBY conflict. The findings of this study provide insight into the effect of information asymmetry and potential mitigation measures on NIMBY conflicts.
We undertake a comparative analysis of the decision-making steps involved in the nuclear policies in Germany and Japan after the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident in 2011. We consider five factors to understand these vastly different decisions on nuclear policy. We found that the accident occurred during an election period in Germany, resulting in changes in the stances of the ruling party, whereas the political stability of the ruling party was not highly challenged in Japan. Economic and technical factors indicate that the cost of generating electricity as renewable energy in Germany has been reduced enough to replace nuclear energy. An interconnected grid, as a geopolitical factor, helps to import electricity into Germany, the net electricity exporter, in case of a shortage. Given that the economic, technical, and geopolitical factors do not apply to Japan, Japan should restart its nuclear power plants, unless the political stability of the ruling party is jeopardized by the public through the electoral system. From the comparison, we derive general lessons: (1) a social factor affects the political factor when it jeopardizes the ruling party; (2) mature renewable technologies with economic competitiveness in a country can replace nuclear power; (3) the geopolitical situation may affect the nuclear policy, but not as a critical factor.
Knjiga ,,Upravljanje u nuklearnim katastrofama“ predstavlja originalno, sveobuhvatno i prvo delo na našim prostorima u kojem se prikazuju rezultati teorijskog i empirijskog istraživanja karakteristika različitih faza integrisanog upravljanja u nuklearnim katastrofama, kao što su: prevencija i ublažavanje rizika od nuklearnih katastrofa; pripremljenost građana, lokalnih zajednica i države za nuklearne katastrofe; odgovor (mere zaštite i spasavanja sa taktikom njihove primene) i oporavak od posledica nuklearnih katastrofa. Pored toga, autori na vrlo intuitivan, pristupačan i razumljiv način opisuju složenu fenomenologiju nuklearnih katastrofa sa posebnim osvrtom na korišćenje nuklearne energije u mirnodopske svrhe i nuklearni terorizam kao jednu od najozbiljnijih pretnji bezbednosti u XXI veku.
Pored sveobuhvatnih teorijskih elaboracija, u naučnoj monografiji autori predstavljaju rezultate kvantitativnog istraživanja uticaja demografskih, socio-ekonomskih i psiholoških karakteristika ispitanika na njihove stavove o brojnim relevantim pitanjima iz oblasti upravljanja u nuklearnim katastrofama (percepcija rizika i strahovi o nuklearnim katastrofama, percepcija o prihvatanju i odbijanju korišćenja nuklearne energije u mirnodopske svrhe, multidimenzionalna pripremljenost građana, lokalnih zajednica, države i interventno-spasilačkih službi (policije, vatrogasno-spasilačkih jedinica i službe hitne medicinske pomoći) za reagovanje u nuklearnim katastrofama, percepcija pozitivnih i negativnih perspektiva izmene zakonske regulative o izgradnji nuklearnih elektrana u Srbiji). Višeetapnim slučajnim uzorkovanjem, anketirano je nekoliko stotina građana, na području grada Beograda, korišćenjem metode snežne grudve. Dobijeni podaci su analizirani i interpretirani korišćenjem statističkih tehnika, kao što su: višestruka regresija, Hi-kvadrat test, Jednofaktorska analiza varijanse (ANOVA), T-test i Pirsonova linearna korelacija. Rezultati naučnog istraživanja umnogome doprinose unapređenju teorijskog i empirijskog fonda naučnih saznanja koja se mogu iskoristiti za kreiranje strategija i programa unapređenja pripremljenosti stanovništva za reagovanje u različitim nuklearnim i radiološkim katastrofama. The book "Nuclear Disaster Management" is an original, comprehensive, and the first piece in our country which presents the results of theoretical and empirical research of the characteristics of different phases of integrated management in nuclear disasters, such as prevention and mitigation of nuclear disasters; preparedness of citizens, local communities and the state for nuclear disasters; response (protection and rescue measures with tactics of their application) and recovery from the consequences of nuclear disasters. In addition, the authors describe in a very intuitive, accessible, and understandable way the complex phenomenology of nuclear disasters with special reference to the use of nuclear energy for peacetime purposes and nuclear terrorism as one of the most serious security threats in the 21st century.
In addition to comprehensive theoretical elaborations, in the scientific monograph, the authors present the results of quantitative research on the impact of demographic, socio-economic, and psychological characteristics of respondents on their views on many relevant issues in nuclear disaster management (risk perception and fears of nuclear disasters, perception of acceptance and rejection). use of nuclear energy for peacetime purposes, multidimensional preparedness of citizens, local communities, the state and emergency services (police, fire, and rescue units, and emergency medical services) to respond to nuclear disasters, perception of positive and negative prospects for changing the legislation on the nuclear construction power plant in Serbia). Several hundred citizens, in the area of the city of Belgrade, were surveyed by multi-stage random sampling, using the snowball method. The obtained data were analyzed and interpreted using statistical techniques, such as: multiple regression, Chi-square test, One-factor analysis of variance (ANOVA), T-test, and Pearson's linear correlation. The results of scientific research greatly contribute to the improvement of the theoretical and empirical fund of scientific knowledge that can be used to create strategies and programs to improve the preparedness of the population to respond to various nuclear and radiological disasters.
Public support is a key determinant of whether any energy project is developed in democratic countries. In recent decades, scholars have extensively examined levels of support and opposition to energy infrastructure, often with a focus on so-called Not-in-My-Backyard (NIMBY) sentiments. As the need for energy infrastructure grows, so does the need to extract insights and lessons from this literature. In this systematic literature review, we evaluate decades of research to identify important trends in topical focus, research findings, and research design. We find a disproportionate focus on wind energy, followed by solar, fossil fuels, and transmission, with most studies conducted in the United States or United Kingdom, and that individuals are more often supportive of energy projects than they are opposed. Scholars have examined the role of many factors in understanding attitudes toward energy infrastructure, and often find knowledge, trust, and positive perceptions about the benefits of projects to be positively correlated with support for projects, although with variation across energy types. NIMBY attitudes differ widely in approach and are often plagued by problematic research designs that limit inferences and the generalizability of findings. We provide a detailed discussion of these limitations and suggest areas in which the literature can expand.
In survey research, vignette experiments typically employ short, systematically varied descriptions of situations or persons (called vignettes) to elicit the beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors of respondents with respect to the presented scenarios. Using a case study on the fair gender income gap in Austria, we discuss how different design elements can be used to increase a vignette experiment’s validity and reliability. With respect to the experimental design, the design elements considered include a confounded factorial design, a between-subjects factor, anchoring vignettes, and blocking by respondent strata and interviewers. The design elements for the sampling and survey design consist of stratification, covariate measurements, and the systematic assignment of vignette sets to respondents and interviewers. Moreover, the vignettes’ construct validity is empirically validated with respect to the real gender income gap in Austria. We demonstrate how a broad range of design elements can successfully increase a vignette study’s validity and reliability.
Personal and political action on climate change is traditionally
thought to be motivated by people accepting its reality and importance.
However, convincing the public that climate change is
real faces powerful ideological obstacles1–4, and climate change
is slipping in public importance in many countries5,6. Here we
investigate a di�erent approach, identifying whether potential
co-benefits of addressing climate change7 could motivate
pro-environmental behaviour around the world for both those
convinced and unconvinced that climate change is real. We
describe an integrated framework for assessing beliefs about
co-benefits8, distinguishing social conditions (for example,
economic development, reduced pollution or disease) and
community character (for example, benevolence, competence).
Data from all inhabited continents (24 countries; 6,196
participants) showed that two co-benefit types, Development
(economic and scientific advancement) and Benevolence (a
more moral and caring community), motivated public, private
and financial actions to address climate change to a similar
degree as believing climate change is important. Critically,
relationships were similar for both convinced and unconvinced
participants, showing that co-benefits can motivate action
across ideological divides. These relationships were also
independent of perceived climate change importance, and
could not be explained by political ideology, age, or gender.
Communicating co-benefits could motivate action on climate
change where traditional approaches have stalled.
Based on a literature review on factors that explain media effects and previous findings on media coverage and public opinion on nuclear power, this article examines the effects of Fukushima on media coverage and public opinion in Germany in two studies. The first study uses content analysis data to analyse changes in media coverage, and the second one is based on panel survey data to examine attitude changes on an individual level. The results of both studies show changes in media coverage and public opinion on nuclear power. Furthermore, the second study reveals that individual attitude changes cannot necessarily be explained by the same factors as the distribution of attitudes.
© The Author(s) 2015.
This paper investigates the relation between objective conditions and grievances and the construction of the nuclear energy ''problem'' and the mobilization of anti-nuclear movements in Western Europe. Using data on protest reactions to the Chernobyl disaster in Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, we first discuss the effects of so-called ''suddenly imposed grievances.'' We then turn to the frame alignment model, which emphasizes the importance of processes of definition and interpretation for the mobilization of social movements. We confront this model with data on public attitudes towards nuclear energy and anti-nuclear movement mobilization in Western Europe. Our analysis indicates that objective conditions as such have little explanatory power, and that similar events and conditions have led to widely diverging interpretations and levels of anti-nuclear mobilization in different countries. We find that the differential success of the interpretative efforts of and-nuclear movements does not depend on the nature of the discursive struggle itself, or on the evidential base for the anti-nuclear movement's claims. Our data show that the movements' political opportunities, and the resulting cross-national variations in the degree to which anti-nuclear movements have been able to block or slow down the expansion of nuclear energy, have been crucial determinants both of the movements' impacts on public opinion and of the movements' levels of mobilization. We conclude that a combination of the political opportunity and framing perspectives is most fruitful in making sense of the differential careers of the nuclear energy conflict in Western Europe.
In many countries, the development of wind power capacity has proceeded more slowly than expected. Levels of public acceptance are usually considered primary indicators of support for wind power within society. Surveys generally show strong overall public support for wind power, while concrete projects are felt to suffer from the Not-In-My-Backyard (NIMBY) syndrome. This paper questions the significance of these outcomes. It argues that other barriers to wind power implementation exist beyond attitudes among the population. The argument is made that institutional factors have a greater impact on wind energy facility siting. We will discuss two examples of how institutional factors shape the level of support when implementing wind power
The key thesis in Hubbard's paper ‘Accommodating Otherness: anti-asylum centre protest and the maintenance of white privilege’ is that racial dimensions of opposition to asylum seekers centres are part of cultural NIMBYism. This connection of complex issues with an invalid concept obscures our understanding of the role of ‘otherness’ in facility siting discussions. The deconstruction of the contested NIMBY concept is illustrated by a brief review of wind power, which was mentioned as a field in which ‘otherness’ had not been incorporated.
How does spatial scale affect support for public policy? Does supporting housing citywide but “Not In My Back Yard” (NIMBY) help explain why housing has become increasingly difficult to build in once-affordable cities? I use two original surveys to measure how support for new housing varies between the city scale and neighborhood scale. Together, an exit poll of 1,660 voters during the 2015 San Francisco election and a national survey of over 3,000 respondents provide the first experimental measurements of NIMBYism. While homeowners are sensitive to housing’s proximity, renters typically do not express NIMBYism. However, in high-rent cities, renters demonstrate NIMBYism on par with homeowners, despite continuing to support large increases in the housing supply citywide. These scale-dependent preferences not only help explain the deepening affordability crisis, but show how institutions can undersupply even widely supported public goods. When preferences are scale dependent, the scale of decision-making matters.
One of the most vexing problems for governments is building controversial facilities that serve the needs of all citizens but have adverse consequences for host communities. Policymakers must decide not only where to locate often unwanted projects but also what methods to use when interacting with opposition groups. In Site Fights, Daniel P. Aldrich gathers quantitative evidence from close to five hundred municipalities across Japan to show that planners deliberately seek out acquiescent and unorganized communities for such facilities in order to minimize conflict. When protests arise over nuclear power plants, dams, and airports, agencies regularly rely on the coercive powers of the modern state, such as land expropriation and police repression. Only under pressure from civil society do policymakers move toward financial incentives and public relations campaigns. Through fieldwork and interviews with bureaucrats and activists, Aldrich illustrates these dynamics with case studies from Japan, France, and the United States. The incidents highlighted in Site Fights stress the importance of developing engaged civil society even in the absence of crisis, thereby making communities both less attractive to planners of controversial projects and more effective at resisting future threats.
The Fukushima nuclear accident in March 2011 generated deep public anxiety and uncertainty about the future of nuclear energy. However, differently to fossil fuel plants, nuclear plants produce virtually no greenhouse gas emissions or air pollutants during power generation. Here we show the effect on air pollution and infant health in the context of the temporary closure of nuclear plants by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in the 1980s. After the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission intensified inspections throughout the nation, leading to the shutdown of two large nuclear power plants in the TVA area. In response to that shutdown, electricity generation shifted one to one to coal-fired power plants within TVA, increasing particle pollution in counties where they were located. Consequently, infant health may have deteriorated in the most affected places, indicating deleterious effects to public health.
Risk perception and public involvement have become more and more important in post-Fukushima accident era. A survey had been carried out about public acceptance of constructing coastal/inland Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) in China. We examined impact factors of public acceptance of nuclear energy and also carried out a comparison between China and OECD. The study revealed that the public still took relatively optimistic attitude although there was a slight decrease just after Fukushima and the public's confidence recovered four years later. The ratio of inland NPPs opponents reached to quite a high level and “not-in-my-back-yard” still reflected an obvious syndrome. We also found public acceptance is mainly affected by benefit and, to a lesser extent, by knowledge, education and age. Moreover, the study suggested government is still a creditable information resource due to its authority but most of respondents felt little or no well-informed about nuclear safety, which means a significant communication gap exists between government and the public. As China is the most ambitious country to develop nuclear energy, it is proposed to introduce a transparent and open system of third-party evaluation, which mainly consists of scientists and non-profit research institutions, to ensure the healthy and sustainable development of nuclear energy.
Many contributions have been made in the studies of the factors that influence public acceptance of nuclear power. However, previous studies seldom focused on nuclear power plants in the planning stage. Actually public perception is usually more sensitive at the preliminary planning stage of a nuclear power station. Mainly utilizing questionnaire survey and focus group methods, we have identified the factors that are correlated with local acceptance of planned nuclear power plants in China. We conducted our survey in two cities, Huludao, Liaoning province in northern China, and Shanwei, Guangdong province in southern China, where the local government was planning to build its first nuclear power plant. We find that people who live closer to the plant sites are less willing to accept nuclear power than those who live farther away. As for “surface psychology” factors, perceived benefits and risks significantly influence local acceptance. As for “deep psychology” factors, emotional identification and social trust can significantly influence local acceptance, while perceived knowledge cannot. When citizens are unfamiliar with nuclear power plants, they are more inclined to evaluate the benefits and risks through emotional identification and social trust, rather than through pure rational deduction based on concrete facts.
A growing area of research has addressed public perception of unconventional oil and natural gas development via hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”). We extend this research by examining how geographic proximity to such extraction interacts with political ideology to influence issue support. Regression analysis of data from a fall 2013 national telephone survey of United States residents reveals that as respondents’ geographic distance from areas experiencing significant development increases, political ideology becomes more strongly associated with issue support, with the liberal-partisan divide widening. Our findings support construal level theory's central premise: that people use more abstract considerations (like political ideology) the more geographically removed they are from an issue. We discuss implications for studying public opinion of energy development as well as for risk communication.
Ambitious policies for limiting climate change require strong public support. However, the public's appetite for such policies, as observed in most countries, is rather limited. One possibility for enhancing public support could be to shift the main justification in the public policy discourse on greenhouse gas mitigation from benefits of reducing climate change risks (the conventional justification) to other types of benefit. Technological innovation, green jobs, community building and health benefits are widely discussed candidates. The intuition is that reframing greenhouse gas mitigation efforts and their benefits in such terms could make them more personally relevant as well as more emotionally engaging and appealing to citizens. On the basis of results from two survey-embedded experiments (combined N = 1,675), and in contrast to some earlier studies, we conclude that simple reframing of climate policy is unlikely to increase public support, and outline reasons for this finding. As the added value of other justifications remains unclear at best and potentially nil, sticking to climate risk reduction as the dominant justification seems worthwhile.
Population-based survey experiments have become an invaluable tool for social scientists struggling to generalize laboratory-based results, and for survey researchers besieged by uncertainties about causality. Thanks to technological advances in recent years, experiments can now be administered to random samples of the population to which a theory applies. Yet until now, there was no self-contained resource for social scientists seeking a concise and accessible overview of this methodology, its strengths and weaknesses, and the unique challenges it poses for implementation and analysis. Drawing on examples from across the social sciences, this book covers everything you need to know to plan, implement, and analyze the results of population-based survey experiments. But it is more than just a "how to" manual. This lively book challenges conventional wisdom about internal and external validity, showing why strong causal claims need not come at the expense of external validity, and how it is now possible to execute experiments remotely using large-scale population samples. Designed for social scientists across the disciplines,Population-Based Survey Experimentsprovides the first complete introduction to this methodology. Offers the most comprehensive treatment of the subject Features a wealth of examples and practical advice Reexamines issues of internal and external validity Can be used in conjunction with downloadable data from ExperimentCentral.org for design and analysis exercises in the classroom.
I examine the political consequences of prison development in the United States. I theorize that the prison apparatus not only upholds a system of racial hierarchy and class stratification, but also links the economic stability of lower-class, rural whites to the continued penal confinement of poor, urban minorities. Analysis of an original dataset suggests that local reliance on existing prison infrastructure throughout many economically-depressed rural communities strengthens political support for harsh criminal punishments and militates against reform efforts. Political representatives have powerful interests in protecting rural prison investments, regardless of their actual economic impact in host communities. The evidence indicates that rural prison development contributes to the perceived economic viability and political power of rural areas, while reinforcing forms of punishment that destabilize poor urban neighborhoods and harm politically marginalized populations.
Public support for nuclear power generation has decreased in Japan since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in March 2011. This study examines how the factors influencing public acceptance of nuclear power changed after this event. The influence factors examined are perceived benefit, perceived risk, trust in the managing bodies, and pro-environmental orientation (i.e., new ecological paradigm). This study is based on cross-sectional data collected from two online nationwide surveys: one conducted in November 2009, before the nuclear accident, and the other in October 2011, after the accident. This study's target respondents were residents of Aomori, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures in the Tohoku region of Japan, as these areas were the epicenters of the Great East Japan Earthquake and the locations of nuclear power stations. After the accident, trust in the managing bodies was found to have a stronger influence on perceived risk, and pro-environmental orientation was found to have a stronger influence on trust in the managing bodies; however, perceived benefit had a weaker positive influence on public acceptance. We also discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.
© 2015 Society for Risk Analysis.
There are relatively few direct tests of the economic effects of asymmetric information because of the difficulty in identifying
exogenous information measures. We propose a novel exogenous measure of information based on the quality of property tax assessments
in different regions and apply this to the U.S. commercial real estate market. We find strong evidence that information considerations
are significant. Market participants resolve information asymmetries by purchasing nearby properties, trading properties with
long income histories, and avoiding transactions with informed professional brokers. The evidence that the choice of financing
is used to address information concerns is mixed and weak.
Debates over initiating war with Iraq turned to a considerable extent on which of two analogies from the past were most relevant: World War II or the Vietnam War. Along with three other theoretical conditions, the debate provided an unusual opportunity to develop and assess important implications of Mannheim's theory of generational effects. National data gathered before the war and during the war indicate that generational experience had a significant effect on which analogy was chosen as more relevant and that the analogy chosen had, in turn, a strong relation to support for or opposition to the war. However, the translation of generational experience into final support for or opposition to the war was weak. Reasons for the weak relationship are discussed.
The Fukushima nuclear disaster has significantly changed public attitudes toward nuclear energy. It is important to understand how this change has occurred in different countries before the global community revises existing nuclear policies. This study examines the effect of the Fukushima disaster on public acceptance of nuclear energy in 42 countries. We find that the operational experience of nuclear power generation which has significantly affected positive public opinion about nuclear energy became considerably negative after the disaster, suggesting fundamental changes in public acceptance regardless of the level of acceptance before the disaster. In addition, contrary to our expectation, the proportion of nuclear power generation is positively and significantly related to public acceptance of nuclear energy after the Fukushima accident and government pressure on media content led to a greater decrease in the level of public acceptance after the accident. Nuclear energy policymakers should consider the varied factors affecting public acceptance of nuclear energy in each country depending on its historical, environmental, and geographical circumstances before they revise nuclear policy in response to the Fukushima accident.
The gender gap in support for war represents the largest and most consistent policy gender gap in public opinion polling. We know little about the causes of this gap, however, because scholars have not effectively isolated how or why the gender gap changes in response to the characteristics of different wars. We conducted two controlled experiments on demographically representative samples of U.S. adults to see if systematically varying the stakes of war (economic/strategic vs. humanitarian) or multilateral support for the action (U.N. approval vs. U.N. rejection) affects the size of the gender gap. We propose an interactive theoretical perspective that explicitly links these characteristics with key individual-level characteristics that might be driving the gender gap. Our findings indicate that the gender gap is strongly dependent on the specific context of the war. In fact, we find that the gender gap reverses when the war has U.N. approval or if the stakes of the war are humanitarian.
The nuclear accident in Fukushima and the subsequent discussions about nuclear power influenced public acceptance of this technology. The aim of the present study was to examine why after the Fukushima accident some people converted from supporting nuclear power to opposing it or became undecided. Data from a longitudinal telephone survey with two measurement points were used. The first survey was conducted about 15 months before the accident in Fukushima and the second survey was conducted about 20 months after. The sample consisted of 561 respondents from the German- and French-speaking regions of Switzerland. Results suggest that changes in benefits perception were mainly responsible for people׳s changes in attitude toward nuclear power. People perceived somewhat more risks related to nuclear power after the accident in Fukushima. This change in risk perception did not explain the attitudinal changes of proponents into opponents of nuclear power, however.
In the June 1987 issue of this Review, Stanley Rothman and S. Robert Lichter offered evidence to support their argument that “the new environmental movement in the United States is partly a symbolic issue,” that elites in the news media and in public interest groups misrepresent the dangers of nuclear energy as a surrogate for more direct criticism of liberal capitalism in the United States. In this controversy, Charles J. Helm expresses skeptictem about the Rothman-Lichter line of argument; and they respond.
Significance
Because of its severity and proximity, the Fukushima nuclear accident exposed the Chinese public to the potential risks associated with nuclear power. Our analysis of surveys taken before and immediately after the event shows that this disaster has dramatically changed the risks of nuclear power perceived by the public and has significantly decreased public acceptance. Our study identified females, those who are not in public service, lower-income workers, and residents close to existing nuclear facilities as potentially the most affected. Effective communication strategies to facilitate public judgments about new nuclear plants should recognize these sensitive subgroups.
Past opinion polls have shown that major nuclear accidents can have a serious impact on public attitudes. Drawing on a values-beliefs-norms (VBN) model of environmental commitment, the authors hypothesized that a major nuclear accident may also affect the most durable cognitive and cultural foundations that underpin public perceptions of nuclear power. For 32 Italian participants, the authors assessed perceptions of nuclear power and values 1 month before and after the Fukushima nuclear accident. Participants reported decreases in nuclear trust, environmental organization trust, and pronuclear attitudes; they reported a significant increase in environmental beliefs assessed by the new ecological paradigm and a marginally significant increase in altruism. Major nuclear accidents may have the potential to influence values and proenvironmental beliefs, probably for the reason that they are the basis of public attitudes toward nuclear power.
It is tempting to attribute variations in support for nuclear power to prominent accidents such as Three Mile Island in the United States or Fukushima in Japan. To illuminate how such attribution can be problematic, the authors discuss the historical context of the Three Mile Island accident in the United States. They point out that the US nuclear industry faced major challenges even before the 1979 accident: Forty percent of all US reactor cancellations between 1960 and 2010, they write, occurred before the accident in Pennsylvania. While safety concerns were undoubtedly a driver of public aversion to new nuclear construction in the United States, the nuclear industry already faced substantial economic and competitiveness obstacles, much like the nuclear industry worldwide before Fukushima.
With all energy production systems there are environmental issues to be considered, risks to be assessed, and challenges to be addressed. It must be emphasized that an ideal energy source that is at the same time efficient, cost-effective, environment-friendly, and risk-free does not exist. There are always some necessary trade-offs to be made, in order to ensure optimal use of energy resources, while limiting environmental and health impacts. Nuclear energy is currently the only technology with a secure base-load electricity supply and no greenhouse gas emissions that has the potential to expand at a large scale. However, the spent fuel and safety issues must be addressed. Another base-load electricity source – the fossil-burning power plants – although affordable, emits various air pollutants (chemical and radioactive effluents, dust, ash, etc.), which are dispersed from a power source and transported through various pathways that could lead to the general population exposure. This paper summarizes current status and future trends in base-load electricity sources in the U.S., including environmental footprints, new regulatory requirements, and cost issues. It also presents an analysis of challenges that need to be overcome and opportunities that could us lead us closer to a sustainable energy future.
Utilizing a longitudinal study design, the impact of the 2011 accident in Fukushima on acceptance of nuclear power and the evaluation of several scenarios with different percentages of nuclear power were examined. Mail surveys were conducted in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. The first survey took place before the accident in Fukushima (Autumn 2010), the second survey immediately after the accident (March 2011), and the third survey half a year after the accident (October 2011). A sample of 463 persons participated in all three surveys. The accident had a negative impact on the acceptance of nuclear power. The mean change was moderate, and high correlations between the measurement points were observed. Overall, participants thus showed rather stable attitudes towards nuclear power across the three measurement waves. Results of the present study demonstrate the importance of prior beliefs and attitudes for the interpretation of an accident. The evaluation of the various scenarios was strongly influenced by participants’ pre-Fukushima attitudes towards nuclear power.
In this paper, the author focuses on Minnesota`s unsuccessful attempt to site a hazardous waste stabilization and containment facility, but argues that this should not be seen as another siting failure due to irrational and self-interested citizens who subverted a well-conceived and essential disposal facility. Through a detailed comparison of citizen and elite claims about the facility, the author shows that many of the sources of disagreement between citizens and siting officials involve value tradeoffs rather than technical issues, and contend that state officials` views on these matters should not take precedence. Through partisan probing, citizens actually contribute to effective policymaking rather than detract from it.
Public opinion about energy can be understood in a unified framework. First, people evaluate key attributes of energy sources, particularly a fuel's cost and environmental harms. Americans, for example, view coal as relatively inexpensive but harmful, natural gas as less harmful but more expensive, and wind as inexpensive and not harmful. Second, people place different weights on the economic and environmental attributes associated with energy production, which helps explain why some fuels are more popular than others. Americans' attitudes toward energy are driven more by beliefs about environmental harms than by perceived economic costs. In addition, attitudes about energy sources are largely unrelated to views about global warming. These findings suggest that a politically palatable way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is through regulation of traditional pollutants associated with fossil fuels, rather than a wholly new carbon policy.
Past research has documented high levels of public concern for risks relating to nuclear power, with opposition to nuclear energy particularly being linked with general environmental concern. However recent UK energy policy, and other debates worldwide, has led to a repositioning of nuclear power as a 'low carbon' electricity source with potential benefits for mitigating climate change. Whilst many previous studies have examined perceptions of climate change and nuclear energy separately, this large British public attitude survey explores relationships between the two as well as with perceptions of other energy sources. Both general environmental concern and concerns about climate change were linked with positive evaluations of renewables and negative evaluations of nuclear power. We conclude that, despite the policy positioning of nuclear power as a low carbon electricity source, most people concerned about climate change continue to perceive nuclear negatively, something partially explained by general environmental concerns.
Media discourse and public opinion are treated as two parallel systems of constructing meaning. This paper explores their relationship by analyzing the discourse on nuclear power in four general audience media: television news coverage, newsmagazine accounts, editorial cartoons, and syndicated opinion columns. The analysis traces the careers of different interpretive packages on nuclear power from 1945 to the present. This media discourse, it is argued, is an essential context for understanding the formation of public opinion on nuclear power. More specifically, it helps to account for such survey results as the decline in support for nuclear power before Three Mile Island, a rebound after a burst of media publicity has died out, the gap between general support for nuclear power and support for a plant in one's own community, and the changed relationship of age to support for nuclear power from 1950 to the present.
Rapid expansion of nuclear power in China requires not only increasing institutional capacity to
prevent and adequately cope with nuclear risks, but also increasing public trust in governmental
agencies and nuclear enterprises managing nuclear risks. Using a case study on Haiyang nuclear power
plant in Shandong province, public participation, communication, information disclosure and trust
regarding nuclear policy and industry are investigated among Chinese citizens living close to nuclear
facilities. The results show that development and decision-making on nuclear power are dominated by
an ‘iron nuclear triangle’ of national governmental agencies, nuclear industries, and research
organizations. The public, media and NGOs are neither informed nor involved. In contrast to low
levels of public trust in governmental authorities advocating nuclear energy in western countries after
Fukushima (Japan), Chinese respondents have still high levels of trust in governmental authorities (but
not in state-owned nuclear power companies) regarding nuclear information provision, emergency
response to nuclear accidents, and decision making on the country’s nuclear future. A proven record in
risk management and lack of alternative information sources explains this trust. As overall trust and
credibility in China’s governmental authorities is waning, and absence of transparency and public
scrutiny proved fatal in Fukushima, the Chinese government has to develop a strategy for public
involvement and information disclosure in nuclear power development in the post-Fukushima era.
In response to the threat of climate change, many governments have set policy goals to rapidly and extensively increase the use of renewable energy in order to lessen reliance upon fossil fuels and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Such policy goals are ambitious, given past controversies over large-scale renewable energy projects, particularly onshore wind farms, that have occurred in many countries and involved bitter disputes between private developers and local ‘NIMBYs’ (not in my backyard) protestors. This article critically reviews recent research into how public engagement is conceived and practiced by policy makers and developers, with a specific focus upon the UK. The review reveals a distinction between different scales of technology deployment, with active public engagement only promoted at smaller scales, and a more passive role promoted at larger scales. This passive role stems from the influence of widely held NIMBY conceptions that presume the public to be an ‘ever present danger’ to development, arising from a deficit in factual knowledge and a surfeit of emotion, to be marginalized through streamlined planning processes and one-way engagement mechanisms. It is concluded that NIMBYism is a destructive, self-fulfilling way of thinking that risks undermining the fragile, qualified social consent that exists to increase renewable energy use. Breaking the cycle of NIMBYism requires new ways of thinking and practicing public engagement that better connect national policy making with local places directly affected by specific projects. Such a step would match the radical ambitions of rapid increases in renewable energy use with a process of change more likely to facilitate its achievement. WIREs Clim Change 2011 2 19–26 DOI: 10.1002/wcc.89
For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website
The ‘NIMBY’ (Not In My Back Yard) concept is commonly used to explain public opposition to new developments near homes and communities, particularly arising from energy technologies such as wind farms or electricity pylons. Despite its common use, the concept has been extensively critiqued by social scientists as a useful concept for research and practice. Given European policy goals to increase sustainable energy supply by 2020, deepening understanding of local opposition is of both conceptual and practical importance. This paper reviews NIMBY literature and proposes an alternative framework to explain local opposition, drawing upon social and environmental psychological theory on place. Local opposition is conceived as a form of place-protective action, which arises when new developments disrupt pre-existing emotional attachments and threaten place-related identity processes. Adopting a social constructivist perspective and drawing on social representation theory, a framework of place change is proposed encompassing stages of becoming aware, interpreting, evaluating, coping and acting, with each stage conceived at multiple levels of analysis, from intrapersonal to socio-cultural. Directions for future research and potential implications of the place-based approach for public engagement by energy policy-makers and practitioners are discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
In this paper, I focus on Minnesota's unsuccessful attempt to site a hazardous waste stabilization and containment facility, but argue that this should not be seen as another siting failure due to irrational and self-interested citizens who subverted a well-conceived and essential disposal facility, Through a detailed comparison of citizen and elite claims about the facility, I show that many of the sources of disagreement between citizens and siting officials involve value trade-offs rather than technical issues, and contend that state officials’ views on these matters should not take precedence. Through “partisan probing,” citizens actually contribute to effective policymaking rather than detract from it.
The purpose of this study was to examine the hypothesis that factors that determine public acceptance of nuclear facilities in a general situation are different from factors that determine public acceptance of nuclear facilities in a siting situation by using a causal model. A survey was conducted in Japan with 1,000 randomly selected adult participants. The results were that in a general situation, both perceived risk and perceived benefit are important for public acceptance of nuclear facilities. In addition, in a siting situation, perceived risk is very important for public acceptance of nuclear facilities, whereas perceived benefit has little importance for public acceptance. Thus, for discussions concerning public acceptance of a facility associated with risk, it is important to clarify whether the viewpoint of a general situation or the viewpoint of a siting situation should be adopted.
Nuclear energy has received substantial recent attention, marketed as a ‘green’ solution to global climate change (GCC) with calls for new reactors. However, considerable debate exists about whether it represents a viable solution to GCC. Given the complexity and urgency of the issue, a full and balanced debate is desirable. Since media play an important role in shaping public perception, we examined print media coverage of proposed reactors in Georgia—one site in the southeastern United States, which has been the focus of such proposals. We analysed the content of editorials and news articles from two local newspapers—the Augusta Chronicle and Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The former exclusively published pro-nuclear opinion pieces whereas the latter published a mix of pro- and anti-nuclear opinions. The majority of news articles in both newspapers generally presented balanced arguments. Pro- and anti-nuclear arguments most often reflected economic and environmental benefits and risks, whereas informational text primarily detailed regulatory processes and financing. Findings suggested that informational text was not necessarily ‘neutral’, sometimes masking covert pro- and anti-nuclear content. Implications for how findings might shape public opinion and strategies for shaping media and extending public deliberation are discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Major nuclear accidents, such as the recent accident in Fukushima, Japan, have been shown to decrease the public's acceptance of nuclear power. However, little is known about how a serious accident affects people's acceptance of nuclear power and the determinants of acceptance. We conducted a longitudinal study (N= 790) in Switzerland: one survey was done five months before and one directly after the accident in Fukushima. We assessed acceptance, perceived risks, perceived benefits, and trust related to nuclear power stations. In our model, we assumed that both benefit and risk perceptions determine acceptance of nuclear power. We further hypothesized that trust influences benefit and risk perceptions and that trust before a disaster relates to trust after a disaster. Results showed that the acceptance and perceptions of nuclear power as well as its trust were more negative after the accident. In our model, perceived benefits and risks determined the acceptance of nuclear power stations both before and after Fukushima. Trust had strong effects on perceived benefits and risks, at both times. People's trust before Fukushima strongly influenced their trust after the accident. In addition, perceived benefits before Fukushima correlated with perceived benefits after the accident. Thus, the nuclear accident did not seem to have changed the relations between the determinants of acceptance. Even after a severe accident, the public may still consider the benefits as relevant, and trust remains important for determining their risk and benefit perceptions. A discussion of the benefits of nuclear power seems most likely to affect the public's acceptance of nuclear power, even after a nuclear accident.
This paper proposes that when optimally answering a survey question would require substantial cognitive effort, some repondents simply provide a satisfactory answer instead. This behaviour, called satisficing, can take the form of either (1) incomplete or biased information retrieval and/or information integration, or (2) no information retrieval or integration at all. Satisficing may lead respondents to employ a variety of response strategies, including choosing the first response alternative that seems to constitute a reasonable answer, agreeing with an assertion made by a question, endorsing the status quo instead of endorsing social change, failing to differentiate among a set of diverse objects in ratings, saying ‘don't know’ instead of reporting an opinion, and randomly choosing among the response alternatives offered. This paper specifies a wide range of factors that are likely to encourage satisficing, and reviews relevant evidence evaluating these speculations. Many useful directions for future research are suggested.
The wind energy debate represents a new kind of environmental controversy which divides environmentalists of different persuasions who attach contrasting priority to global and local concerns. Case studies of public attitudes towards existing and proposed windfarm developments in Scotland and Ireland are used to test three counter-intuitive hypotheses derived from previous attitudinal research. These are: (a) that local people become more favourable towards windfarms after construction; (b) that the degree of acceptance increases with proximity to them; and (c) that the NIMBY syndrome(not-in-my-back-yard) does not adequately explain variations in public attitudes. All three hypotheses are supported by this study. Large majorities favour wind power development in principle and in (local) practice. Although some aspects of NIMBY attitudes exist, the surveys reveal an 'inverse NIMBY' syndrome, whereby those with windfarms in their 'backyard' strongly support the technology. The research endorses the view that aesthetic perceptions, both positive and negative, are the strongest single influence on individuals' attitudes towards wind power projects. Comparison of the current institutional factors driving wind energy development with those during earlier eras of hydro-power development and large-scale afforestation emphasizes the need for strategic planning guidance. The potential for using a planning-led approach to windfarm developments by adopting 'Indicative Windfarm Strategies' is discussed.
