Abstract horizons and concrete winds : the politics of development in the Cape Wind project
department or school: Arts, Faculty of
department or school: Anthropology, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Good, Danielle L.
issued: 2013-06-01T09:11:19Z
issued: 2013
related degree: Master of Arts - MA
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: This paper discusses the politics of the first proposed offshore wind turbine development in the United States, Cape Wind. I analyze two sides of this conflict; 1) How residents’ protests of the turbines have problematized large scale renewable energy projects by equating the politics of Cape Wind to capitalist exploitation of land and resources. The ways residents have protested Cape Wind draws parallels between building turbines and exploitation of local resources, something that is more commonly associated with the development of traditional carbon-based fuels like coal, oil and natural gas. 2) I argue that the residents who opposed the project contributed to the developer’s ability to build in Nantucket Sound by contributing to a process of rendering the area technical (Li 2007). My goal is to provide insight into the particular ways the wind and Nantucket Sound has been made the target of development, and also to show how a certain class of Cape Cod residents reacted to the project.
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/44539
note: ABSTRACT HORIZONS AND CONCRETE WINDS: THE POLITICS OF DEVELOPMENT IN THE CAPE WIND PROJECT by Danielle L. Good B.A., Wellesley College, 2011 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Anthropology) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) May 2013 © Danielle L. Good, 2013 ii Abstract This paper discusses the politics of the first proposed offshore wind turbine development in the United States, Cape Wind. I analyze two sides of this conflict; 1) How residents’ protests of the turbines have problematized large scale renewable energy projects by equating the politics of Cape Wind to capitalist exploitation of land and resources. The ways residents have protested Cape Wind draws parallels between building turbines and exploitation of local resources, something that is more commonly associated with the development of traditional carbon-based fuels like coal, oil and natural gas. 2) I argue that the residents who opposed the project contributed to the developer’s ability to build in Nantucket Sound by contributing to a process of rendering the area technical (Li 2007). My goal is to provide insight into the particular ways the wind and Nantucket Sound has been made the target of development, and also to show how a certain class of Cape Cod residents reacted to the project. iii Preface The research for this thesis was approved by the University of British Columbia Behavioral Research Ethics Board (BREB). The certificate of approval number is H12-00911 under the title Sites Unseen. This research was funded in part by the University of British Columbia Faculty of Arts Graduate Entrance Scholarship, and was conducted under the advisement of Dr. Shaylih Muehlmann. The author conducted all research, data collection, and analysis for this thesis. Danielle L. Good is the sole author of this manuscript, no portion of which has been previously published. iv Table of Contents Abstract .....…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2013-11
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0073877
language: eng
degree discipline: Anthropology
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
scholar level: Graduate
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/44539