Search

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.

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.