Doctoral Dissertation Research: Law, the Environment, and the Social Construction of Public Interest

许多美国人宣称，与传统燃料相比，他们更喜欢可再生能源，但实际的可再生能源项目经常遭到可能所在社区的反对。对环境破坏和审美枯萎的抱怨是对任何不受欢迎的开发项目的常见反应，使清洁能源与土地和景观、记忆和身份的保护对立起来。这对政策制定者、科学家和关注可持续发展的社区提出了重要的问题：什么是符合公众利益的？谁有权定义这种利益？这些定义可以通过什么方式出现或被强加？加州大学欧文分校的博士生Alyse Bertenthal在Mona Lynch博士的指导下，将通过对最近一项开发100万块太阳能电池板的提议的案例研究来解决这些问题，该提议在一个长期为土壤、矿物和水的分配和管理而苦苦挣扎的地区引发了巨大的争议。研究人员将使用混合方法，包括访谈、参与者观察、地理信息系统/全球定位系统地图绘制，以及对法庭文件的历史分析，以阐明法律、社会和环境随着时间的推移是如何相互作用的。从民族志和历史的角度审视这些争端，可以让研究人员阐明，在就土地和资源的合法要求进行谈判时，个人和团体是如何将自己建设成“公众”的。通过资源管理解开公众身份的构建和争辩，这个项目将有助于努力理解人们定义自己的话语、逻辑和实践；他们如何将他们的过去和未来置于特定的地方；以及法律如何调解这些过程。这项研究的结果将为制定更可持续的美国立法的政策制定者以及必须维持这些政策的人所面临的挑战提供洞察力。

Many Americans proclaim a preference for renewable energy over traditional fuel sources, yet actual renewable-energy projects frequently draw opposition from communities in which they may be sited. Complaints of environmental damage and aesthetic blight are common responses to any unwanted development project, pitting the clean energy against the preservation of land and landscape, memory, and identity. This raises important questions for policymakers, scientists, and communities concerned with sustainable development: What does it mean to be in the public interest? Who has authority to define that interest? And through what means might such definitions emerge or be imposed?University of California, Irvine, doctoral student, Alyse Bertenthal, under the supervision of Dr. Mona Lynch, will address these questions through a case study of a recent proposal to develop a million-panel solar farm that has generated significant controversy in a region that has long struggled over the allocation and management of its soil, minerals, and water. The researcher will use a mixed methods approach, including interviews, participant observation, GIS/GPS mapping, and the historical analysis of court documents to shed light on how laws, society, and the environment have interacted over time. Examining these disputes both ethnographically and historically allows the researcher to elucidate how individuals and groups construct themselves as "the public" as they negotiate legal claims to land and resources. By untangling constructions and contestations of public identity through resource management, this project will contribute to efforts to understand the discourses, logic, and practices through which people define themselves; how they situate their pasts and futures in particular places; and how law mediates these processes. Findings from this research will provide insight into the challenges confronted by policymakers legislating a more sustainable America and by the people who must sustain such policies.