Time Grabbing As a Chronopolitical Mechanism in Wind Power Development: Insights from Fosen and Frøya, Norway

Onshore wind power development in Norway has intensified disputes over land use, Indigenous rights, and democratic legitimacy. Through a qualitative case study, this article examines how two such conflicts unfold over time: first, Fosen, where the 2021 Supreme Court ruling found that wind turbines in key winter pastures violated the human rights of Indigenous South Saami reindeer herders, and second, Fr & oslash;ya, where wind power development faced intense pushback from the rural community. Drawing on chron politics, I develop the concept of time grabbing, the governmental redonfiguration of temporal horizons, rhythms, and deadlines, as a complement to land grabbing. Empirically, I draw on field observations and semi-structured interviews with South Saami herders, residents at Fr & oslash;ya, and public officials to identify three chronopolitical mechanisms, acceleration, protraction, and epistemic exclusion, and trace how they shape participation and rights across the two cases. By juxtaposing Foson's colonial context with Fr & oslash;ya's non-colonial rural setting, the article demonstrates how local temporalities, rhythms, and decision-making practices become subordinated to national energy agendas across the cases. I conclude that these temporal dynamics displace local temporal agency and weaken democratic legitimacy in the energy transition.