Social Movements Against Wind Power in Canada and Germany: Energy Policy and Contention

Taking a comparative case study approach between Canada and Germany, this book investigates the contrasting response of governments to anti-wind movements.

Environmental social movements have been critical players for encouraging the shift towards increased use of renewable energy. However, social movements mobilizing against the installation of wind turbines have now become a major obstacle to their increased deployment. Andrea Bues draws on a cross-Atlantic comparative analysis to investigate the different contexts of contentious energy policy. Focusing on two sub-national forerunner regions in installed wind power capacity – Brandenburg and Ontario – Bues draws on social movement theory to explore the concept of discursive energy space and propose explanations as to why governments respond differently to social movements. Overall, Social Movements against Wind Power in Canada and Germany offers a novel conceptualization of discursive-institutional contexts of contentious energy politics and helps better understand protest against renewable energy policy.

This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of renewable energy policy, sustainability and climate change politics, social movement studies and environmental sociology.

Andrea Bues is a research analyst at the German Advisory Council on the Environment and is based at the Potsdam-Institute for Climate Impact Research. She holds a PhD in political science from Freie Universität Berlin and has been working on land use conflicts and energy transitions.