Doctoral Dissertation Research: Environmental Attitudes and Policy Formulation Associated with Rapid Energy-Related Development

这一博士论文研究项目将考察政治和经济背景，这些背景决定了与水力压裂相关的讨论如何、何时和在哪里产生。这位博士生将特别关注北达科他州的巴肯地层，研究在该地区居住至少五年的个人的日常经历如何影响书面和口头主张、论点和想法的创造和理解。学生还将衡量这些论述对规划者、地方官员和商界领袖在碳氢化合物开采和经济发展方面决策的影响。该项目的成果将有助于围绕生产科学和非专业知识的理论讨论，并将为繁荣和繁荣后社区的长期结果提供新的见解。项目成果将与北达科他州的市政、工业和非政府组织分享，并将创建一个在线本科教学模块，让科学、技术、工程和数学专业的学生接触到技术发展的社会影响。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生能够建立强大的独立研究生涯。日常的资源开采经验影响着居民对资源的思考、谈论和写作，但人们对水力压裂知识是如何在经历“繁荣”的地区产生的知之甚少。在这个项目的实施过程中，博士生将使用北达科他州报纸上石油和天然气报道的内容分析以及地理信息系统可视化技术来衡量社区领导人在土地使用和政策偏好方面的变化。我们会进行定性访问，以了解较长期居民对与碳氢化合物有关的发展的意见。该项目的成果将有助于有关能源地理(特别是化石燃料生产的地理)、采掘区观念和争论的形成以及水力压裂的社会和文化层面的理论和经验文献。此外，该项目将产生关于巴肯页岩地区活动和态度的经验数据，与德克萨斯州和阿巴拉契亚地区的页岩活动相比，该地区在社会科学文献中受到的关注较少。

This doctoral dissertation research project will examine the political and economic context that determines how, when, and where discussions related to hydraulic fracturing are produced. Focusing specifically on North Dakota's Bakken Formation, the doctoral student will examine how everyday experiences of individuals who have resided in the region for at least five years influence the creation and understanding of written and spoken claims, arguments, and ideas. The student also will measure the effect of these discourses on the decision making of planners, local officials, and business leaders in regards to hydrocarbon extraction and economic development. The results of this project will contribute to theoretical discussions surrounding the production of scientific and lay knowledge and will provide new insights regarding the longer-term outcomes of boom and post-boom communities. Project results will be shared with municipal, industry, and non-governmental groups in North Dakota, and an online undergraduate instructional module will be created to expose science, technology, engineering, and mathematics students to societal impacts of technology development. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.Daily experiences with resource extraction influence how residents think, talk, and write about resources, but little is known about how knowledge of hydraulic fracturing is generated in areas undergoing "boom" conditions. During the conduct of this project, the doctoral student will use content analysis of oil and gas coverage in North Dakota newspapers as well as GIS visualization techniques to measure variation in land use and policy preferences among community leaders. Qualitative interviews will be conducted to gauge the opinions of longer-term residents regarding hydrocarbon-related development. Results from this project will contribute to theoretical and empirical literatures dealing with geographies of energy (particularly geographies of fossil fuel production), the formation of ideas and arguments in zones of extraction, and the social and cultural dimensions of hydraulic fracturing. Furthermore, this project will generate empirical data about activities and attitudes in the Bakken shale region, which has received scant attention in the social science literature compared to shale plays in Texas and Appalachia.