Exploring the intersections between local knowledge and environmental regulation: A study of shale gas extraction in Texas and Lancashire
基于2012至2015年在德克萨斯和兰开夏的实地研究，探讨不同监管框架如何受地方话语影响，揭示社区反对如何推动对页岩气环境与社会影响的理解。
Contemporary shale gas extraction, also known as ‘fracking’, has become one of the most contentious environmental issues facing Europe and North America. Academic and policy debates have hitherto focused principally on questions related to scientific disputes, risk perception, potential health impacts, and the wider economic and geo-political dimensions to energy security. This paper draws on extensive qualitative research in Texas and Lancashire, undertaken between 2012 and 2015, to explore how differing regulatory frameworks are shaped through highly localized discourses that include communities opposed to fracking. Whilst there are significant differences between these two examples, including the extent of environmental monitoring, the local context remains a pivotal arena within which the regulatory and technical dimensions to fracking are being contested and scrutinized. The two cases illustrate how community opposition has catalysed important processes that have enhanced understanding of the environmental and social impacts of shale gas extraction.