Wind Power Legitimacy in the Netherlands

Abstract

For an innovation to be successful it does not only rely on its physical attributes. It also needs integration in the environment in which it is developed. This environment is also called the Technological Innovation System which consists of several functions. One of these is Legitimacy. A high legitimacy aids the integration in the environment and is influenced through the actions of organizations and individuals that frame the technology in a particular way to influence how others see the technology. In this research legitimacy in the Dutch wind power discourse has been examined through analysis of newspaper articles. The resulting database is used to answer how legitimacy changed and which actors where involved in this. It is found that legitimacy for wind power decreased from slightly more positive to slightly more negative and that this is accompanied by a change in dominant frames which is likely the result of a group of actors with the strongest support for these frames.