A typology of actors and their strategies in multi-scale governance of wind turbine conflict within forests

Abstract Wind turbine construction, governed by complex multi-scale governance systems, can cause conflict between actors interested in forest management. We examined wind turbine conflicts in forests in two case studies, the state of Maine, USA and the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Specifically, we examined based on triangulation of documents, participant observation, and qualitative interviews with 46 actors how actors argued in favor of certain scales within the wind turbine multi-scale governance systems and how they applied scalar strategies within them. In this paper, we propose a typology that describes actor behavior within multi-scale governance systems. Seven different actor types within multi-scale governance were identified: the Knowledge Exchanger, the Linker, the Creator, the Maintainer, the Power Shifter, the Mobile Learner, and the Overwhelmed & Passive. Actors involved in wind turbine conflicts within forests re-shaped and re-defined the governance system by their actions in the conflict process. However, not all actors could equally participate in scalar strategies. Therefore, only some actors had advantages in re-shaping the governance system according to their interests.