Framing ‘fracking’: Exploring public perceptions of hydraulic fracturing in the United Kingdom

• Published in: Public understanding of science (Bristol, England) Vol. 26; no. 1; pp. 89 - 104
• Main Authors: Williams, Laurence, Macnaghten, Phil, Davies, Richard, Curtis, Sarah
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.01.2017; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Feasibility; fracking; framing risk; Hydraulic fracturing; lay expertise; participation in science policy; Perceptions; Policy making; public engagement; Public opinion; Public policy; risk perception; Safety; Scholarship; Science and technology; shale gas; Transportation safety; United Kingdom > UK; shale gas; public engagement; participation in science policy; fracking; framing risk; lay expertise; risk perception
• ISSN: 0963-6625; 1361-6609
• DOI: 10.1177/0963662515595159

The prospect of fracking in the United Kingdom has been accompanied by significant public unease. We outline how the policy debate is being framed by UK institutional actors, finding evidence of a dominant discourse in which the policy approach is defined through a deficit model of public understanding of science and in which a technical approach to feasibility and safety is deemed as sufficient grounds for good policymaking. Deploying a deliberative focus group methodology with lay publics across different sites in the north of England, we find that these institutional framings are poorly aligned with participants’ responses. We find that unease regularly overflows the focus on safety and feasibility and cannot be satisfactorily explained by a lack of understanding on the part of participants. We find that scholarship from science and technology studies productively elucidates our participants’ largely sceptical positions, and orientates strategies for responding to them more effectively.