Artefacts, the Gaze and Sensory Experience: Mediating Local Environments in the Planning Regulation of Major Renewable Energy Infrastructure in England and Wales

An ANT perspective suggests that artefacts can play a key role within the regulatory process. Such artefacts are material entities in their own right, and they also mediate the perception and understanding of the natural or built environment. The idea of planning as the circulation of artefacts is explored through research on offshore wind farms and other major low-carbon energy infrastructure in England and Wales, where a distinct regulatory regime for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) operates. Detailed research highlights not only the role of maps, photographs, other visualisations and a range of other artefacts but also the reliance on the “gaze” and embodied experience of the key regulatory decision-makers in the regulation of these projects.