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Dash for Gas: Climate Change, Hegemony and the Scalar Politics of Fracking in the UK
Author(s) -
Nyberg Daniel,
Wright Christopher,
Kirk Jacqueline
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
british journal of management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.407
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1467-8551
pISSN - 1045-3172
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8551.12291
Subject(s) - hegemony , politics , oil shale , hydraulic fracturing , political economy , shale gas , climate change , scaling , political science , economics , law , geology , petroleum engineering , paleontology , oceanography , geometry , mathematics
This paper investigates the political contestation over hydraulic fracturing of shale gas, or ‘fracking’, in the UK. Based on an analysis of four public inquiries, it shows how both proponents and opponents of fracking employed scaling to mobilize interests by connecting (or disconnecting) fracking to spatial and temporal scales. The analysis explains how a fossil fuel hegemony was reproduced by linking local and specific benefits to nationally or globally recognized interests such as employment, energy security and emission reductions. The paper contributes to recent debates on environmental political contestation by showing how scaling enables the linkage of competing interests by alternating between spatial (e.g. local vs. global) and temporal (e.g. short term vs. long term) horizons. The authors argue that scaling allows dominant actors to uphold contradictory positions on climate change, which contributes to explaining the current disastrous political climate impasse.