IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/teinso/v34y2012i3p185-195.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Risk society without reflexive modernization? The case from northwestern Michigan

Author

Listed:
  • Howell, Jordan P.

Abstract

Energy infrastructure projects have long been the source of public controversy, whether for economic, environmental, or social reasons. In this paper I examine the controversy surrounding the construction of a wind turbine park near Ludington, in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Michigan from the perspectives of Beck's ‘risk society’ thesis and the associated concept of ‘reflexive modernization’. Although many energy projects have been evaluated in such terms, the theories are traditionally presented as a single block. In this paper I re-consider the fusion of risk society and reflexive modernization through the analysis of resistance to the wind farm project outlined above. Following Beck et al.'s guidelines, I ‘test’ for the presence of reflexive modernization, analyzing the case study through a discourse analysis. I determine that while evidence of the ‘risk society’ thesis abounds, it is not entirely clear that ‘reflexive modernization’ is occurring. This is due, superficially, to differences in the involved parties' interests in actually changing (and being open to changing) their ontologies, policies, and procedures in response to critique; and, more fundamentally, to the inherent indeterminability of knowledge, or the realpolitik that conflict between competing claims to knowledge can never be resolved to all parties' satisfaction. To that end, I call for the re-isolation of the risk society and reflexive modernization concepts in relation to energy and other infrastructure projects.

Suggested Citation

  • Howell, Jordan P., 2012. "Risk society without reflexive modernization? The case from northwestern Michigan," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 185-195.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:34:y:2012:i:3:p:185-195
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2012.04.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160791X12000371
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.techsoc.2012.04.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Heiman, M.K., 2006. "Expectations for renewable energy under market restructuring: the U.S. experience," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 1052-1066.
    2. Delvenne, Pierre & Fallon, Catherine & Brunet, Sébastien, 2011. "Parliamentary technology assessment institutions as indications of reflexive modernization," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 36-43.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gillenwater, Michael, 2008. "Redefining RECs--Part 1: Untangling attributes and offsets," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 2109-2119, June.
    2. Lean, Hooi Hooi & Smyth, Russell, 2013. "Are fluctuations in US production of renewable energy permanent or transitory?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 483-488.
    3. John Foster & Liam Wagner, 2014. "International experience with transformations in electricity markets: A Short Literature Review," Energy Economics and Management Group Working Papers 2-2014, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    4. Srikanth Reddy, K. & Panwar, Lokesh & Panigrahi, B.K. & Kumar, Rajesh, 2018. "Modeling and analysis of profit based self scheduling of GENCO in electricity markets with renewable energy penetration and emission constraints," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 116(PA), pages 48-63.
    5. Delvenne, Pierre & Parotte, Céline, 2019. "Breaking the myth of neutrality: Technology Assessment has politics, Technology Assessment as politics," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 64-72.
    6. Zhang, Fan, 2013. "How fit are feed-in tariff policies ? evidence from the European wind market," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6376, The World Bank.
    7. Gregor Wolbring, 2022. "Auditing the ‘Social’ of Quantum Technologies: A Scoping Review," Societies, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-38, March.
    8. Mohd Haizam Mohd Saudi & Obsatar Sinaga & Djoko Roespinoedji & Mohd Shahril Ahmad Razimi, 2019. "Environmental Sustainability in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: The Nexus between Green Product and Green Process Innovation," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 9(5), pages 363-370.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:34:y:2012:i:3:p:185-195. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/technology-in-society .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.