Last June, I attended the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) Europe conference in Trondheim, Norway. Together with Marjolein van Asselt, I organised a symposium on siting controversies with several speakers from Finland, the Netherlands, Czech Republic and Poland on Carbon Capture and Storage, nuclear waste management, mobile phone masts and the role of experts. I invited prof. Judith Petts from Southampton University in the U.K. as commentator.
I also received the prize for best student paper and a travel grant from the SRA for my paper and presentation The struggle for knowledge: The dynamics of citizen engagement in mobile phone mast siting controversies. I’m very grateful for the support in attending the conference.
Trondheim was very beautiful

See below for the abstract of the symposium on siting controversies:
Understanding the societal dynamics around risk: Learning from siting controversies
Technological infrastructures, ranging from disposal, storage and production facilities to critical components such as base stations for wireless communication technology, need to be placed. The search for such geographical sites often leads to opposition from the local community – frequently described as NIMBY-ism, even though academics have increasingly called for more critical interpretations. This panel takes up this call by acknowledging that siting controversies are not just about the local community level – which is often the most visible and adamant layer – but it stretches into other levels of social organization too: regional, national, European and increasingly global.
This panel aims at bringing together academics interested in exploring the societal debates and processes around siting controversies, with a particular focus on how risks and uncertainties are conceptualized, assessed, dealt with and challenged. What actor networks are formed and in which way(s)? And although it has become something of a truism to call for public engagement in siting practices, it remains to be seen how this is implemented and what can be learned from the experiences. Presentations will approach these interrelated questions from different theoretical backgrounds, allowing for a comparison across technological domains and various regions in Europe. More understanding of the multi-level societal dynamics around risks can thus provide insights in how to effectively deal with the potentially controversial issue of siting of technological infrastructures.