Environmental Impact Assessment as a social process: The case of nuclear waste storage in Sweden

The process underlying the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for large developments is often designed to allow opportunities for members of the public and NGOs to voice their opinions. This study describes the EIA process leading to a decision in the question of radioactive waste storage in Swed...

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Main Authors: E. Carina H. Keskitalo, Annika Nordlund, Urban Lindgren
Format: Article
Language:deu
Published: Unité Mixte de Recherche 8504 Géographie-cités 2015-03-01
Series:Cybergeo
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/cybergeo/26842
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author E. Carina H. Keskitalo
Annika Nordlund
Urban Lindgren
author_facet E. Carina H. Keskitalo
Annika Nordlund
Urban Lindgren
author_sort E. Carina H. Keskitalo
collection DOAJ
description The process underlying the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for large developments is often designed to allow opportunities for members of the public and NGOs to voice their opinions. This study describes the EIA process leading to a decision in the question of radioactive waste storage in Sweden. While it should be possible for a deciding authority to reject an EIA on the basis of non-involvement of the public or NGOs, this study illustrates the way in which the EIA process may be formed by different social norms that relate to the specific case. Authorities can be considered to represent a plan paradigm (by which the project itself as well as political decisions made about it are in focus), whereas many environmental organizations traditionally represent an environment paradigm, focusing on the risk of potentially ecologically harmful processes. These differences can also be seen as symptomatic of the inclusion of parts of an environment paradigm in legislation such as the Swedish Environmental Code.
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institution Kabale University
issn 1278-3366
language deu
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publisher Unité Mixte de Recherche 8504 Géographie-cités
record_format Article
series Cybergeo
spelling doaj-art-df22ccd84df348fa84351710746cc9e72025-08-20T04:02:13ZdeuUnité Mixte de Recherche 8504 Géographie-citésCybergeo1278-33662015-03-0110.4000/cybergeo.26842Environmental Impact Assessment as a social process: The case of nuclear waste storage in SwedenE. Carina H. KeskitaloAnnika NordlundUrban LindgrenThe process underlying the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for large developments is often designed to allow opportunities for members of the public and NGOs to voice their opinions. This study describes the EIA process leading to a decision in the question of radioactive waste storage in Sweden. While it should be possible for a deciding authority to reject an EIA on the basis of non-involvement of the public or NGOs, this study illustrates the way in which the EIA process may be formed by different social norms that relate to the specific case. Authorities can be considered to represent a plan paradigm (by which the project itself as well as political decisions made about it are in focus), whereas many environmental organizations traditionally represent an environment paradigm, focusing on the risk of potentially ecologically harmful processes. These differences can also be seen as symptomatic of the inclusion of parts of an environment paradigm in legislation such as the Swedish Environmental Code.https://journals.openedition.org/cybergeo/26842NGOdecision-makingEnvironmental Impact Assessment (EIA)nuclear waste repository
spellingShingle E. Carina H. Keskitalo
Annika Nordlund
Urban Lindgren
Environmental Impact Assessment as a social process: The case of nuclear waste storage in Sweden
Cybergeo
NGO
decision-making
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)
nuclear waste repository
title Environmental Impact Assessment as a social process: The case of nuclear waste storage in Sweden
title_full Environmental Impact Assessment as a social process: The case of nuclear waste storage in Sweden
title_fullStr Environmental Impact Assessment as a social process: The case of nuclear waste storage in Sweden
title_full_unstemmed Environmental Impact Assessment as a social process: The case of nuclear waste storage in Sweden
title_short Environmental Impact Assessment as a social process: The case of nuclear waste storage in Sweden
title_sort environmental impact assessment as a social process the case of nuclear waste storage in sweden
topic NGO
decision-making
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)
nuclear waste repository
url https://journals.openedition.org/cybergeo/26842
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AT annikanordlund environmentalimpactassessmentasasocialprocessthecaseofnuclearwastestorageinsweden
AT urbanlindgren environmentalimpactassessmentasasocialprocessthecaseofnuclearwastestorageinsweden