Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

The Swedish government has set the goal of taking a pioneer role and targeting a transition towards 100% renewable energy use until 2040. To reach this goal, the focus in energy production is shifting towards solar, hydro as well as wind power. Since 2010, wind power in Sweden is a fast-growing industry, promoted as one solution to reach climate goals and ensure more sustainability. Nevertheless, wind power is also criticised and the cause of several land-use conflicts all over Sweden. When it comes to the northern Swedish counties, wind power plants are overlapping with traditional Sámi herding districts. Especially here critical questions regarding a misrecognition of indigenous rights as well as the meaning and implications of justice in the current transition are raised.

This Master thesis addresses the current development of wind farming on Sámi lands in northern Sweden within the energy transition and sheds light on wind-power related conflicts. Therefore, the analytical frameworks environmental justice (EJ) and frame theory (FA) are used, to identify and explain tensions and map possible leverage points. The thesis combines an empirically grounded approach to explore how actors actively involved in wind farming make meaning of environmental justice, and a theory-driven approach to identify leverage points and map injustices. For this reason, in total two methods are used to collect the empirical data material: semi-structured interviews (subjected to FA) as well as a literature review (subjected to the EJ framework).

The results of the frame analysis show that within the actors actively involved in wind farming four different frames can be uncovered, which lead to differing problem definitions as well as suggested solutions. The identified frames cover due to their agenda-setting character not all injustices that were derived from literature review. Furthermore, within the frames several normative dilemmas and tensions were observed, that raise the necessity to reflect on existing frames as well as on the implications of the EJ framework.