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High-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) operators have been rapping on the door of New York State legislators and homeowners since HVHF was successful at producing natural gas from a tight-shale formation in Washington County, Pennsylvania in 2005. This thesis addresses the debate over natural gas production in place within the context of New York State development and within the discourses of ‘Upstate’/’Downstate’ places, agricultural productivism, private property, and watersheds of importance. For natural gas production to occur in place, places must be cast as fit for natural gas production. Places are re-defined (extended, included, isolated, relocated) with scalar practices. Sources of information include interviews, government documents, industry documents, and placards from both those who support and oppose natural gas production. To analyze this information I used methods of discourse theory with grounded theory approaches. Drawing from Erik Swygedouw and other geographic theorists, I use the term glocalization to mean the boundary-making and boundary-mediating process of defining and representing rights, responsibilities, risks, and benefits of actors and phenomena involved in place. This thesis addresses the way in which belief in ideas of place is collectivized and defended. Places are the accumulation of collectivized belief that, through habits of action, become real and meaningful. |
