When worlds collide: nexuses and fractures in rural engagements with energy science, governance and place impacts

Recent years have seen significant interest in the roll-out of ‘new’ energy technologies, such as small-scale wind and solar farms and hydraulic fracturing, in rural areas. Place attachment has become a well-established lens for analysing the cognitive and affective processes through which rural residents form opinions on siting decisions for these technologies. Drawing on recent UK experiences with renewable energy and fracking proposals, I argue for two extensions of this approach to further explorations of nexuses and ruptures created by the deployment of new energy technologies in rural areas. The first concerns the partial ‘re-disaggregation’ of place attachment to deepen understandings of how some disruptions to the valued attributes of rural places become alleviated as developments are assimilated into the fabric of local meanings, while others continue to be seen (by some) as discordant with rural place-based values. The second explores the broader challenges to rural communities emanating from nexuses between: (i) the place-disruptive potential of ‘new’ energy technologies: (ii) understandings of these technologies and the pressures driving their expansion; and (ii) comprehensions of – and the ability to navigate – the governance processes through which decisions are made on whether, in what forms, and where such technologies should be located. Sustained analysis of such nexuses and areas of fragmentation, I argue, are crucial in developing fuller understandings of the implications of energy transitions for rural areas and their residents.