Reconciling windfarms with rural place identity: exploring residents’ attitudes to existing sites

There is a wealth of literature exploring attitudes towards windfarms and the various debates surrounding them. However, for the most part, this literature has focused on responses to proposed sites, rather than exploring the long-term impacts of windfarms on local residents. This paper presents the findings from qualitative research in three English villages, which investigated how existing local windfarms are perceived and experienced by local residents, and how such new structures are incorporated into conceptualisations of rural place over time. The results show that, whilst concerns remain in some instances, the windfarms have (perhaps surprisingly) become a familiar and unremarkable – or even valued - part of the landscape for many people. Here, the varied interpretations of existing windfarms, and the place-based processes underlying them, are discussed with particular reference to rural identities and local contexts. The potential implications of the findings for managing future rural change are also considered.