Literature: "Not In My Neighborhood" Now In English
Not in My Neighborhood is now available in English. (Book cover)
"We want mobile phones, but not mines. We want electricity, but not to live next to windmills. We want the end product, but it should not be produced where we live," says author and advisor Elisabeth Gammelsæter. The book she wrote about the nimby phenomenon, Not in My Neighborhood, has now been translated into English.
Elisabeth Gammelsæter is a senior advisor at Sweco and former secretary general of the industry association Norsk Bergindustri.
She has written the book Not in My Neighborhood, which highlights why NIMBY (Not in My Backyard) cases challenge Norwegian democracy.
When HNN met Gammelsæter in 2022 to discuss the book, it had only been released in Norwegian, and the first print run had sold out.
The author states that the issue is still highly relevant. The English title is "Not in My Neighborhood: How Norwegian NIMBYism Threatens European Sovereignty."
The book is a review of examples of cases that are typically "unpopular but necessary," including the Norwegian Mardøla and Alta cases from the 1970s, mining in indigenous areas, and ocean floor disposal.
Gammelsæter writes about the 'monster masts' in Hardanger, wind turbines, and urban development cases, which often deal with densification.
The English edition has a new cover that contrasts industry with the traditional, depicting a woman in a national costume (bunad) and a man in work clothes.
In the English edition, NIMBY is described as "A concept just as relevant in Boston as in Bergen, in Los Angeles as in Lofoten":
“We want cheap, clean energy, but we don’t want power plants. We want a green transition, but not wind turbines or mines. A new book challenges Norway’s double standards when it comes to environmental and climate measures. Elisabeth Gammelsæter believes it has become more difficult to be a politician, and that the ‘Not in my backyard’ attitude is therefore challenging Norwegian democracy,” writes Patrick F. Fox, CEO of Consensus Strategies, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA, in the English edition.
