%0 Journal Article
%T A Voice for the Community: Public Participation in Wind Energy Development
%A Zena M Wright
%J Dalhousie Journal of Interdisciplinary Management
%D 2012
%I Dalhousie Faculty of Management
%R 10.5931/djim.v8i1.283
%X Wind energy is expanding globally and locally in Atlantic Canada. It is a promising emission-free energy alternative in a context of increasing climate change concerns. Public surveys have reported high levels of public acceptance for wind energy in general; however, this acceptance has not always been reflected in community responses to local wind projects. Public participation has been proposed as an approach for addressing the ˇ°gapˇ± between public support and local opposition. However, public participation must not be solely viewed as a means of removing opposition but rather as the democratic right of local communities to influence decision-making processes. This paper proposes that the participatory processes currently available to host communities are limited in form and substance. Increasing the quality and quantity of public participation would provide a range of benefits, including moving towards the larger societal goal of true public governance of natural resources and the environmental.
%K wind energy
%K public participation
%K environmental assessment
%U http://ojs.library.dal.ca/djim/article/view/283