Fracking: Conflicts over policy, publics, and democracy

In the context of rising energy prices and new efforts to achieve greater independence from imported fuels, a new search for reliable sources of domestic energy production has begun. Employing new technologies, gas companies are exploring new reserves and extracting natural gas from shale at depths that were formerly inaccessible. Induced hydraulic fracking is a technique designed to release natural gas or other substances for extraction. Oil and gas companies already invest heavily in hydraulic fracking and other so called non-conventional energy technologies. According to its proponents, these new technologies open up new options for domestic energy production, for economic growth and even for climate mitigation.
However, in most of the sites being explored for these new forms of shale gas extraction many residents as well as farmers, facilitators of drinking water and other sectors of the local economy express serious concerns over possible impacts of fracking on their living and working conditions. Experts disagree over assessments of economic prospects as well as risks for human health and the environment. With scientific experts involved in the controversy, issues arise about which experts and which stakeholders are legitimate and should be included as relevant publics in deliberation and decision-making on fracking policies. While these conflicts over fracking and other non-conventional energy technologies arise in many countries, the framing, assessment and regulation of the issues differ considerably as they are related to different discourses, institutional settings and cultural contexts.
How are the conflicts over fracking policy, its publics and its appropriate regulation in a democracy to be interpreted and studied empirically? This panel invites papers that analyze and evaluate conflicts and conflict resolution practises related to fracking policy in different contexts with the help of different approaches and methods of interpretation and evaluation from STS scholars and policy analysts. Bringing together case studies on conflicts in fracking policy from different countries, the panel will discuss the challenges these conflicts pose both for democratic policy-making and for interpretive policy studies


Panel No. 7