Stakeholders perception of attitudes towards major landscape changes held by the public: The case of greenhouse clusters in Flanders

The intensification of greenhouse horticulture is a notable trend in many regions around the world. This intensification causes the grouping of large-scale greenhouses on a single site, into so-called ‘greenhouse clusters’. The main incentive for clustering is the reduction of production costs by sharing infrastructure such as energy, water and gas facilities. Despite these advantages, the public remains sceptic towards greenhouse clusters and resistance in Flanders is frequent and often fierce. The objective of this research is to obtain insight into the reasons, underlying motives and processes that steer this resistance as they are perceived by the agricultural sector. A grounded theory approach resulted in a comprehensive scheme that visualizes the public resistance towards greenhouse clusters as perceived by stakeholders in the agricultural sector, and as such the scheme includes factors that are probably also seen as key factors for the resistance among the stakeholders. Our research shows that the protest actions are complex and cannot be attributed to a single concept such as the NIMBY-concept that is still often put forward by politicians, planners and investors.