Pitched battle on the wind front. Sociology of energy counter-mobilizations

This second session of the GRETS seminar, Pitched battle on the wind front. Sociology of energy counter-mobilizations, will bring Stéphanie Dechézelles - University of Pau and the pays de l’Adour The session will be introduced by Arthur Jobert - EDF R&D.

Since the early 2000s, the number of protests against wind farms, whether onshore or offshore, and against the wind energy option in general, has grown steadily around the world. Reflecting this exponential growth in opposition to a technical solution presented as one of the levers of ‘energy transition’ policies, media coverage of localised protests against projects on land and at sea now occupies a prominent place in news coverage. An increasing number of ad hoc groups, as well as regional and national federations, are taking up a cause that is often seen as ‘indefensible’ because it runs counter to the objectives of decarbonising electricity, sustainability, protecting the planet and future generations, etc., that are promoted by the renewable electricity industry.

Based on a ten-year ethnographic study, Stéphanie Dechézelles proposes to go beyond the preconceptions surrounding the deployment of large-scale wind farms and invites us to take an in-depth look at the opposition movement that has sprung up in France against onshore wind farms. By combining the sociology of mobilisation and the analysis of public problems, she will attempt to explain why, despite the many social resources of some of its leaders, this opposition movement has so far failed to influence wind power policy.

Stéphanie Dechézelles is a professor of political science at the Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour - TREE. Her research focuses on analysing the driving forces and conditions that make it possible to get involved in various organisations (parties, associations, informal groups) in support of a wide range of causes (political ideology, energy counter-mobilisations, climate disputes). The research carried out in recent years focuses on forms of collective action in opposition to the deployment of large-scale wind farms in France and Italy.