CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2014
| Author | Kádár, Barnabás Áron |
|---|---|
| Title | The Effect of Anti-fracking Movements on European Shale Gas Policies: Poland and France |
| Summary | While the extraction of shale gas is well underway in the United States, Europe is still lagging behind. Although France and Poland are possessing similarly large reserves, only Poland is undergoing the “shale gas revolution”, while on the other hand France went as far to ban extraction. Through these two case studies the present research argues that the diverging adoption of shale gas in Europe might be explained by the emergence of the anti-fracking movements. By applying the political opportunity structure theory of the social movements literature, the impacts of grassroots and transnational activism on government policies are examined. These two case studies are then extensively analysed using a qualitative comparison and process tracing. Findings reveal that while the anti-fracking movement was the most important impetus behind the French ban, its Polish counterpart could not go beyond local presence and stayed marginal, thus making it unable to have an impact. Finally, the thesis emphasises that the global anti-fracking movement could succeed where local values resonate with their frames. While the presence of environmental frames in France facilitated the movement, the competing energy security and economic development frames in Poland greatly hindered its effectiveness. |
| Supervisor | Jenne, Erin Kristin |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2014/kadar_barnabas.pdf |
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