IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i14p5069-d384317.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Shale Gas Development and Community Distress: Evidence from England

Author

Listed:
  • Feizel Aryee

    (Department of Social Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK)

  • Anna Szolucha

    (Department of Social Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK)

  • Paul B. Stretesky

    (Healthy Living, Department of Social Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8S, UK)

  • Damien Short

    (Human Rights Consortium, School of Advanced Study, University of London, London WC1E 7HU, UK)

  • Michael A. Long

    (Department of Sociology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078-4062, USA)

  • Liesel A. Ritchie

    (Department of Sociology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078-4062, USA)

  • Duane A. Gill

    (Department of Sociology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078-4062, USA)

Abstract

This research examines psychosocial stress associated with shale gas development through the narratives of residents and the Revised Impact of Event Scale (IES-R). We carried out our research in three of England’s communities impacted by shale gas development. To gather data, we conducted qualitative interviews and engaged in participant observation in all three communities and conducted a quantitative survey of residents. From our qualitative interviews it was apparent that the residents we spoke with experienced significant levels of stress associated with shale gas development in each community. Importantly, residents reported that stress was not only a reaction to development, but a consequence of interacting with industry and decision makers. Our quantitative findings suggest that a significant portion of residents 14.1% living near the shale gas sites reported high levels of stress (i.e., scoring 24 or more points) even while the mean IES-R score of residents living around the site is relatively low (i.e., 9.6; 95% CI 7.5–11.7). We conclude that the experiences, of the three English communities, reported in the qualitative interviews and quantitative survey are consistent with the reports of stress in the United States for those residents who live in shale gas communities. We therefore suggest that psychosocial stress is an important negative externality, which needs to be taken seriously by local planning officers and local planning committees when considering exploration and development permits for shale gas.

Suggested Citation

  • Feizel Aryee & Anna Szolucha & Paul B. Stretesky & Damien Short & Michael A. Long & Liesel A. Ritchie & Duane A. Gill, 2020. "Shale Gas Development and Community Distress: Evidence from England," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(14), pages 1-19, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:14:p:5069-:d:384317
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/14/5069/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/14/5069/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lai, Po-Hsin & Lyons, Kevin D. & Gudergan, Siegfried P. & Grimstad, Sidsel, 2017. "Understanding the psychological impact of unconventional gas developments in affected communities," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 492-501.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bradshaw, Michael & Devine-Wright, Patrick & Evensen, Darrick & King, Owen & Martin, Abigail & Ryder, Stacia & Short, Damien & Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Stretesky, Paul & Szolucha, Anna & Williams, Laur, 2022. "‘We're going all out for shale:’ explaining shale gas energy policy failure in the United Kingdom," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    2. Long, Michael A. & Ritchie, Liesel A. & Stretesky, Paul B. & Sibley, Martha, 2024. "Perceptions of social disruption in communities that experienced induced seismicity from hydraulic fracturing in Colorado and Oklahoma, USA," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).

    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. Malin, Stephanie A. & Mayer, Adam & Crooks, James L. & McKenzie, Lisa & Peel, Jennifer L. & Adgate, John L., 2019. "Putting on partisan glasses: Political identity, quality of life, and oil and gas production in Colorado," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 738-748.
    2. Gwen Arnold & Meghan Klasic & Madline Schomburg & Abigail York & Melissa Baum & Maia Cherin & Sydney Cliff & Parisa Kavousi & Alexandria Tillett Miller & Diana Shajari & Yuer Wang & Luigi Zialcita, 2022. "Boom, bust, action! How communities can cope with boom‐bust cycles in unconventional oil and gas development," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 39(5), pages 541-569, September.

    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:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:14:p:5069-:d:384317. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.