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We set out to study how the 'promise of green 5G' is produced and circulated. We conducted an analysis of a UK-focused corpus of documents that represent key sites through which the promise of green 5G is produced, circulated and challenged. By the promise of green 5G we refer to an emerging, overarching, dominant expectation that 5G will produce positive environmental sustainability benefits of various kinds. We employed an analytical approach informed by the sociology of expectations and the concept of technoscientific promises. We asked: what are the particular contents of this promise (i.e. the more specific promises and expectations it is built upon), how do ‘enactors’ seek to boost its legitimacy and credibility, what activities are involved in its production and circulation and what are its present-day material effects, does the promise exclude or overlook alternative options, and is it challenged? We pursued these aims and questions through a document analysis of a diverse corpus (n=260) comprised of UK newspaper articles and newswire results, and reports and webpage content from industry, standardisation bodies and research consortia.

The bioblitz phenomenon has recently branched into cities, presenting exciting opportunities for local governments to channel participants’ efforts toward local issues. The City Nature Challenge (CNC) is one such initiative that has been quickly uptaken by hundreds of municipalities worldwide. Despite high participation, we still lack a framework for evaluating how the CNC contributes to local biodiversity knowledge and to inform local government practices. Here, we develop such a tool and present a case study that illustrates its applicability. We demonstrate that the collected records contributed to a better understanding of contemporary, local biodiversity patterns and provided a more realistic representation of understudied groups such as insects and fungi. Importantly, we show that the CNC presented local governments with a cost-effective tool to make informed, evidence-based management and policy decisions, improve education and engagement programs, foster cross-council collaborations, and support a stronger sense of environmental stewardship within the local community.

We analysed 1,557 UK policy documents. This included departmental documents (98), select committee reports (18), POST notes and Commons library briefings (57), written ministerial statements (52), UK general election manifestos (14), policy paper (46), major speeches (9), DECC blog posts (6), and passages of parliamentary debate (1,297). The analysis sought to identify key 'frames' used in the Westminster policy debate over shale development in the UK. Frames are, most simply, shared ways of thinking and talking about particular issues. We identified 9 such frames - 4 pro-shale development and 5 anti-shale development. The data therefore is comprised of every statement from across our corpus that expressed one of the 9 key policy frames. See Williams and Sovacool (2019) for a description of the 9 frames.

We conducted semi-structured interviews with 31 local community members in and around the Fylde region of Lancashire on the topic shale development. The interviews were conducted between April and June 2019. We recruited participants through purposive and snowball sampling. We intentionally sought participants who had been visibly active on the issue locally, and also sought a good balance of both views on the matter and geographical spread of participants within the region. Once initial participants had been recruited, we used the snowballing technique to identify further possible participants. This approach resulted in a sample of 31 interviewees from three geographical areas in the region (rural Fylde, coastal Fylde, and the wider region); of whom 19 were anti-fracking, 6 were pro-fracking and 6 were ambivalent. Our semi-structured interview protocol included questions about attitudes to and general perceptions of shale development; beliefs about impacts (local, national and global; actual and potential); views on governance, regulation and energy policy; reactions to archetypal positions put forward in the shale development policy debate; and experiences, expectations and perceptions of participatory opportunities.

We employ a mixed-method approach to analyse four forms of formal public participation in decision-making on shale development in the UK – planning, environmental permitting, public consultation and dialogue workshops. We focus analytically on the kinds of issues that can be raised effectively in such processes and the scope for public influence. This focus is conceptually inspired by literatures on public participation from Science and Technology Studies and on energy infrastructure planning disputes, with our findings building on existing work on public participation in decision-making on UK shale development. We also conduct local community interviews in the Fylde, Lancashire, UK, in order to understand how these processes are viewed by those who have participated in them. We find that these formal participatory opportunities generally tightly restrict the types of issues that are open for discussion, narrowing the scope for public influence. Some of these forms of participation (public consultations and dialogue workshops) take on an instrumental character, serving as a tool to help achieve the policy aim of facilitating a domestic industry. Others (planning and environmental permitting) are designed to be insensitive to public questioning of that policy aim. Perhaps unsurprisingly then, many of our local community interviewees saw these processes as performative exercises in the legitimation of UK government shale gas policy.

In 2015, a new seismic data set was acquired over the Lookout Field in Alaska in anticipation of development. The survey was acquired using principles of compressive seismic imaging (CSI). This was the first implementation of this technology on land for ConocoPhillips and was a test of its robustness in Arctic conditions. Although there were challenges specific to CSI in acquisition and processing, the test was a success. Since then, CSI design has been used for multiple surveys. The Lookout survey had general imaging objectives for the overburden and reservoir zone, including increased horizontal and vertical resolution, higher signal-to-noise ratio, and amplitude preservation. There were also specific objectives of a more accurate structural image beneath the Fish Creek Slumps, fault identification in the reservoir, and visibility of reservoir edges. Comparisons of the Lookout 2015 CSI data to the existing exploration-quality legacy data show an overall improved image and that the 2015 survey was successful in meeting the reservoir-specific objectives. CSI principles enable more efficient use of acquisition resources, providing the ability to acquire more seismic data than a high-density conventional seismic shoot while maintaining comparable data quality. The impact of CSI is unlocking development-grade seismic data at exploration-grade cost.

This thesis analyses the participation of the environmental NGO Friends of the Earth (FoE) in a planning inquiry into the company Cuadrilla’s appeal against Lancashire County Council’s decision to refuse planning permission to their proposed shale gas exploration sites at Roseacre Wood and Preston New Road. Participant observation, document analysis and video analysis were employed to chart the treatment of FoE’s arguments at the inquiry. Conceptually, the thesis is interested in the notion of justification, and in particular Stirling’s insight that appraisal processes can, through their design and conduct, be conditioned toward providing justification for particular options (Stirling 1994; Stirling 2008). Four such conditioning influences – termed ‘forms of closure’ here - are found to be operating through the design and conduct of this inquiry and channelling it toward the production of justification for the appeals in question and shale development more broadly. These forms of closure each render the inquiry insensitive to certain arguments and matters of concern raised by FoE by either blunt procedural exclusion or by displaying insensitivity in the conduct of appraisal itself. This thesis builds on existing work on the necessity of and capacity for planning appraisal processes on fracking in the UK to accommodate sceptical public views. In particular, this study contributes fine-grain detail on how participating publics and experts are treated in practice within planning, and makes clear the key influence of prior commitments at the broader level of Government policy. This study also extends the concept of justification by focusing on the ‘downstream’ location of planning appraisal and by considering the relationship between framings of fracking and planning decision-making.

Determining an appropriate regulatory framework for fusion power plants (FPPs) is a key step in the development of fusion power. Decisions made in the near future regarding fusion regulation will have a significant impact on the deployment of FPPs in years to come, not just in the UK but internationally too. Whilst many countries are yet to decide on the best approach to regulating fusion, there are some countries (France, Canada, etc.) that have already decided FPPs will be regulated under the same framework as nuclear fission power plants (NPPs). The widespread adoption of an NPP approach could lead to unnecessarily onerous regulatory practices that are not justified by the hazard potential of FPPs. This thesis aims to draw on the current knowledge of FPPs and current regulatory regimes, both national and international, to determine an appropriate regulatory framework for FPPs. The key safety issues relating to FPPs are explored, including the current approach to fusion safety and methods of accident identification. The results of a sensitivity analysis to gauge the hazard of potential of FPPs are reported. When considering what is an appropriate regulatory system, it is important to remember that regulation should be based on the hazard potential (the unmitigated risk to the public) and not the mitigated risk. On the basis of FPP hazard potential and associated safety, security and safeguards analysis, four main FPP regulatory options for the UK are mapped out and analysed against criteria that are necessary to deliver an effective and efficient regulatory system. The most appropriate option, based upon a proportionate regulatory approach, suggests that a nuclear licensing framework should be adopted. This thesis then develops this proportionate licensing approach and explores how it can fit within the UK legal system. Open Access