Paper short abstract:

This paper analyses how inhabitants of the Noordoostpolder (NL) produce knowledge to empower their citizenship in the contestation of fracking. On the basis of qualitative ethnographic fieldwork we analyse how this knowledge production is both place based and related to identity formation.

Paper long abstract:

This paper analyses the specifics of how inhabitants of the Noordoostpolder in The Netherlands produce knowledge to empower their citizenship in the contestation of fracking. The Noordoostpolder is a rural municipality in The Netherlands where negotiations over exploratory drilling is currently taking place.

Knowledge plays a central role in fracking negotiations among state institutions, fracking companies and involved communities. Not only do people frame experiences of disempowerment vis-à-vis energy politics in terms of lack of accessible knowledge. Also, citizens often voice distrust towards the ways governments and companies manage information about fracking. To counter this, the production of knowledge about fracking is used as an important element of resistance, or act of citizenship.

On the basis of qualitative ethnographic fieldwork we analyse how knowledge production is used in Noordoostpolder citizenship. The paper discusses how local knowledge production is both place based and related to identity formation. Protestors use knowledge production as a form of resistance while at the same time claiming it as a right. We will analyse what the production of knowledge means in the Noordoostpolder and how this shapes ways of resisting fracking.