Competing Wind Energy Discourses, Contested Landscapes

The impairment of landscapes is a concern constantly raised against wind energy developments in Germany\udas in other countries. Often, landscapes or landscape types are treated in the literature as essentialist or\udat least as uncontested categories. We analyse two examples of local controversies about wind energy, in\udwhich “landscape” is employed by supporters and opponents alike, from a poststructuralist and discourse\udtheoretical angle. The aim is to identify and compare landscape constructs produced in the micro discourses\udof wind energy objectors and proponents at local level (a) within each case, (b) between the two cases and (c)\udwith landscape constructs that were previously found in macro discourses. One major finding is that several\uddifferent landscapes can exist at one and the same place. Furthermore there seems to be a relatively stable\udset of competing landscape concepts which is reproduced in specific controversies. The paper concludes by\udhighlighting practical consequences and by identifying promising avenues of further research