Actor interaction in the EIA process in Sweden
case study of Tönsen wind power park project
Sustainable developmentEnvironmental impact assessmentActor interactionCase studyWind powerTrustTönsen
In the growing concern for the state of the environment more tools are being integrated in the decision-making processes. Sweden actively makes use of environmental impact assessment (EIA), which is supposed to minimise negative impacts of a project, policy or plans on the environment. The EIA process in Sweden still requires certain improvements to be more efficient. In this study actor interaction was analysed with trust being the framework for analysis. The aim is to find out whether it is possible to use trust as a framework for analysis since trust research is very discipline dependent. For this analysis impersonal trust between organizations as interaction was mostly used. The chosen framework was applied to a case study of the wind power project in Tönsen. Methods for the study include a literature review and surveys. The results include suggestions on how to better design a detailed framework for analysis.
It was found that there is a need for more cross-disciplinary or interdisciplinary view of trust and further development of certain aspects of the theory such as quantification, dynamics, reciprocity, and classification. Actor interaction in the EIA process proved to be an interesting, but challenging task since it involves many interactions of different nature. In practice the biggest challenge is in the interaction between developer and the general public. It is argued that with further research in applying trust to actor interaction in the EIA process, the process can be improved and relationships between certain actors can become better.