Understanding the Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of Public Attitudes and Community Responses to Shale Gas: an Integrated Approach, 2019-2022

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.This research project analysed how public attitudes and community responses to shale gas unfold in space and time.  Given that public protests about hydraulic fracturing ('fracking') have taken place in several countries including the UK, understanding public attitudes and community responses to shale gas development is a key social science research area, with relevance for UK policy and for developers' 'social license to operate'. To date, cross-sectional research on public attitudes to shale gas has predominated, with little detail on how attitudes might vary across geographical areas or evolve over time. Moreover, little in-depth research has charted the lived experience of UK communities in places of shale gas development or the operator engagement that has taken place there. To address these gaps, this project implemented a mixed-method approach combining spatial, qualitative and quantitative tools. A multi-scalar approach was undertaken with a particular interest in the evolution of public attitudes at the societal level, and the relations between stakeholder and community engagement around particular shale gas development projects at the local level. Informed by frameworks derived from research on other controversial energy technologies, the aims were to address the following questions: how do public attitudes to shale gas evolve over space and time in response to unfolding events and changing discourse?what is the lived experience of communities affected by shale gas site preparation, exploration and extraction?what rationales and practices are employed by shale gas stakeholders, including operators, to engage with communities and how is this engagement perceived and responded to? Main Topics:The research project included three types of survey:four national longitudinal surveys were conducted over the course of the project in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022, respectivelytwo surveys were conducted with samples on individuals living in very close proximity to prospective shale gas development sites – in Great Altcar (July/August 2020) and Woodsetts (June 2021)one additional national Omnibus survey data set, which included a small number of questions, was run a few days prior to the UK general election in December 2019