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Fracking Interdisciplinary Research Paper
Zachary M. Moore
INTS 3300-[Section 001]
Dr. Gail Bentley
Texas Tech University

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Abstract:
In this paper four different articles are looked at to gather research to understand a
complex problem and potential come to solutions or at least better understanding of the complex
problem. The four articles being looked at are "Fracking" controversy and communication:
Using national survey data to understand public perceptions of hydraulic fracturing, North
Dakota’s black gold; preventing America’s newest boomtown from becoming America’s next
ghost town, Autopoetic landscapes: the architectural implications of mining the Marcellus Shale,
and Public express concerns over fracking in their communities. The question being asked is,
what would be an effective approach to developing more environmentally sound fracking
operations which will have a positive impact on both the environment and the surrounding
communities, so that after the economic boom is over, the community maintains economic gains
and its natural environment? Mixed methods were used throughout the paper to analyze the
information from the articles chosen. This paper covers some of the potential methods that could
be used to strengthen both the environments and economies in communities where hydraulic
fracturing has a strong presence. There is evidence that if communities invest in their businesses
long term rather than focus everything around the fracking culture then these communities won’t
face a busted economy. There is also evidence that if safer holding methods were used then
certain chemicals won’t leak out into the environment. Further research is needed to understand
how to predict potential boom and bust moments in communities economic cycles as well as
what economic paths different communities in different regions should invest in besides
hydraulic fracturing to maintain their economies.

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This research paper is an interdisciplinary research project using Repko’s 10 STEP
process to find solutions or tentative solutions to a complex problem. The complex problem
being researched involves finding effective approaches to developing more environmentally
sound fracking operations which will have a positive impact on both the environment and the
surrounding communities. The purpose is to find solutions that maintain economic gain and the
natural environment. This complex problem will require the knowledge of two disciplines;
business communication and environmental architecture to find potential solutions.
STEP 1: State the focus of your paper:
The concept of hydraulic fracturing or fracking was introduced in 1949 and has been
changing, and evolving ever since to the point where we are at today. Throughout the years of
change and growth several different problems have arisen that effect communities and fracking
operations alike. These problems include things such as poor environments, discontent with the
public eye and towns that are in economic turmoil thus creating a bust or ghost town. This
research study is going to pull from perspectives of both environmental architecture and business
communication to create a better understanding of both the pros and cons of fracking, and what
can be done to create potential solutions to the complex problem.
Based upon the perspectives of environmental architecture and business communication
what would be an effective approach to developing more environmentally sound fracking
operations which will have a positive impact on both the environment and the surrounding
communities, so that after the economic boom is over, the community maintains economic
gains and its natural environment?

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STEP 2: Justify using an interdisciplinary Approach:
Different types of interdisciplinarity can be seen as representing different choices within
an overarching research process. (Repko, 69) All research problems reduced to their simplest
forms have 3 steps in common. These steps are as follows, reorganize the research needed, then
approach the problem using a research strategy and close with a solution or at least a tentative
solution. (Repko, 72) There are several different justifications for using an interdisciplinary
approach for the complex problem which involves seeking out an effective direction to go in
developing more environmentally sound fracking operations that have a positive impact on both
the environment and the surrounding communities, so that after the economic boom is over the
community still has the ability to have economic gains while maintaining a healthy ecosystem
around communities and frack sites.
One justification flows from the complexity of the question posed. (Tayler, 25) The
question cannot be solely based off of one discipline or mix and matched off of a few different
disciplines. The complexity of the question asked needs to have an interdisciplinary look into
integrating relevant disciplines together to synthesize possible solutions to the complexity of the
problem. Another justification to using an interdisciplinarity approach would be to solving the
complex problem with a long term solution that would take more than just a simple explanation
and plan of action. To create such a plan, more than one discipline will need to be approached
and thoroughly thought through to apply to the complexity of the problem. Lastly, it is an open-
ended question in the sense that it is potentially broad and can several different solutions can be
attained to better understand the complexity of the problem. “No single discipline has been able
to address the problem comprehensively or resolve it.” (Repko, 84) Thus, due to the complex

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nature of the problem more than one discipline will be needed to research the problem and come
up with a set of integrated solutions using different disciplines to assess the complex problem.
STEP 3: Identify relevant disciplines
Several different disciplines can be used to study and understand the complex problem of
finding an effective approach in developing more environmentally sound fracking operations.
This will create a positive impact for the environment and the surrounding communities, so that
after the economic boom is over the community still has economic gains while maintaining a
healthy ecosystem around communities and frack sites. The potentially relevant disciplines that
could be used to further understand and narrow the topic of understanding are as follows:
advertising, communication studies, electronic media communications, economics, business,
business communication, architecture, engineering, environmental architecture, environmental
engineering, economics, family studies, healthy studies, environmental habitual understanding.
These are all potential relevant disciplines with perspectives that relate to the complexity of the
problem in some way. However, with there being too many different disciplines right now that
prove to be potential relevant it creates much ambiguity in solving a broad complex problem
such as this one.
To not have so much ambiguity in solving this complex problem, the potentially relevant
disciplines need to be dropped down to the most relevant disciplines that can be used to integrate
in creating a solution to solve this complex problem.
STEP 4: Conduct a literature search:
The disciplines that are involved in the complex problem are Environmental,
Architecture, and Business communication. These disciplines create a good background or

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template to work off of when it comes to fracking on an engineering sense, and how the facilities
are built and designed to be as efficient as possible when it comes to fracking.
The discipline of Business Communication would relate in several ways to fracking, and
the communities it inhabits, because it is warped around the business understanding that
communication comes into play with working side by side in the community operations. It can
analyze both the lifestyle and business culture of the community. By helping one analyze what
exactly are the trends in day to day life as well as what business moves are being made both
short term and long term. This discipline can also help analyze what decisions are being made
within the community to effect both the economy and environment of the community. The other
spectrum of the business discipline can also focus on giving better understanding when it comes
to the actual fracking business. Again, it will let one analyze what exactly is going on in the
operations of these different outfits that are popping up in all these different communities. It will
help when attempting to take a look into how the fracking companies effected different
communities within the U.S., and how they both beneficial and create negativity for both the
environment and communities that they are in.
STEP 5: Develop Adequacy in Each Relevant discipline:
When it comes to talking about adequacy involving the disciplines with their perspectives
that are involved, you can pin point certain theories within environmental architecture. The
perspectives that you can take from that would involve seeking out the most efficient and green
ways to effectively work with all projects or site maps. This relates to the layouts and blue prints
of how fracking sites are set up and supposed to be operated. Environment architecture also
plays a relevant role in understanding the code and environmental rules that have so far been put

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in place for companies to practice and use hydraulic fracturing. The theories that would be most
relevant in developing adequacy within this discipline would be Green Theory, Environmental
Architecture Theory, and Architecture Theory. This shows that environmental architecture as a
discipline has adequacy within the problem because it helps to see how the hydraulic fracturing
sites are affecting the environment around them.
Business communication is a broad discipline while environmental architecture is an
acute discipline and defined to a small area of architecture. To find adequacy in business
communication as a discipline, one must look at the theories and perspectives that are involved
in that discipline, in this case that being Business Communication. The Business
Communication discipline covers a broad spectrum of different theories and perspectives that
can show understanding for the problem at hand. Business perspectives relate to the
understanding of the hydraulic fracturing models of the company for the companies involved in
these boom towns. Business also allows one to analyze the business trends within these booms
towns and what direction they are headed. This is relevant to the problem at hand of
understanding how a community’s economy works around hydraulic fracturing, and whether or
not there is any viable other form of economy set up in these booms towns. The theories that are
used to determine adequacy within in the discipline in relating to the complex problem are,
Public Relations Theory, Communication Theory, Economic Theories, and business theories.
This shows that Business Communication as a discipline is relevant within the problem for
adequacy was shown when it comes to understanding the business models of both hydraulic
fracturing and community businesses and how one or the other could affect each other in the
short term or the long term.
STEP 6: Analyze the Problem and Evaluate Each Insight or Theory:

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Business communication was chosen to analyze how the towns businesses operate around
the fracking business that surround said towns. Environmental architecture was chosen to better
understand how the frack sites effect the environment around the sites. It was also chosen to
research different methods that are efficient in cost and better the overall environment in the long
run. The below paragraphs look at some of the different articles of text researched to understand
and use the disciplines in creating a solution to solve or attempt to further the understanding of
the complex problem. The phenomena behinds some of these disciplines will be looked at in
these articles that are being researched. “Phenomena are enduring aspects of human existence
that are of interest to scholars and are susceptible to scholarly description and explanation.”
(Repko, 105)
In Autopoetic landscapes: the architectural implications of mining the Marcellus Shale
the thesis paper looks into the negative effects or interventions that hydraulic fracture puts on the
landscape, infrastructure, and technology that is around and/or supports the process. Over time,
we are able to see the effects of fracturing like looking a historic time line that you would see in
a history class. We can see all the different areas or disciplines that hydraulic fracturing has
made in impact in. It can range from a positive to negative effects depending on what the
discipline is and how it has a role in the process and surrounding sites of fracturing. This thesis
for talks mostly of failures that we see incur over time. And from these failures we learn a great
deal of information on how to improve for the future and how to better mine for our natural
minerals.
In North Dakota’s black gold; Williston a town in North Dakota is home to one of the
larger hydraulic fracturing zones or sites in the United States. The city is experiencing
tremendous growth due to the boom town ideology. This article directly touches on how to keep

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a boom town prosperous and what challenges face a town that is in a state no one wants to live
in. The article talks about building a better infrastructure in the town which should help it
survive in the long run. It also talks about certain taxes put in place to fund different parts of the
city and the city's infrastructure. Changes are happening to the environment and the community
around the fracking boom.
Due to the push of hydraulic fracturing and other unconventional methods to pull oil and
gas out of the earth all across the globe, in the article titled: "Fracking" controversy and
communication: Using national survey data to understand public perceptions of hydraulic
fracturing; it has created a great deal of controversy and issues for the communities around
these sites. Through the use of different surveys and mathematical analysis this study is used to
understand the publics' opinions and views on the way these resources are mined and the impacts
that it has on them. For what they have gathered they have come to realize that a large
percentage of the public that they have surveyed aren't very educated on all of what takes place
in the process of hydraulic fracturing and how companies create their guidelines. This creates
greater confusion and controversy on whether or not the public should support it or not. This
puts much confusion on what the pros and cons are in the public eye. The surveys have noted
that the higher educated see more of the benefits of it while the vast majority only understand
what they see from TV or read in a biased article and don't know all the true pros and cons that
come from hydraulic fracturing. Documentation of the unhappiness of American citizens in
regard to the fracking boom. The public takes a more qualitative approach to discussing their
concern for the economic boom of hydraulic fracturing and the pros and cons that go both into
the environment as well as how it affects them from an economic stand point.

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From the research gathered it seems that these hydraulic fracturing companies aren't too
worried about the public's opinion. Sure they bring in great resources for the United States but at
the cost of citizens satisfaction of life in certain areas. Often times people who are excited about
the business that the fracking industry are bringing to their town don't realize the long term
implications that are lurking around the corner if certain matters aren't addressed. Cities
experience tremendous growth due to boom town ideology. It is up the cities and the fracking
officials in those cities to work hand in hand to create a better overall community in those areas
so we don't see a fallout in the future, a prime example would be Midland, going from a
prosperous town in the past to complete crap and then back to prosperous again as, and only as
long as fracking stays there. A possible method to start using to build better infrastructure is to
levy certain taxes to be put into place to fund different parts of the city and the city's
infrastructure. The mathematical analysis that has taken place of the populations view on
fracking and what can done on their stand point to gain their trust and have better communication
between the people that are directly affected by this process. A large percentage of the public
that they have surveyed aren't very educated on all of what takes place in the process of
hydraulic fracturing and how companies create their guidelines. This puts much strain and
confusion on what the pros and cons are in the public eye. Overall a high percentage of the
public isn't happy with what fracking does, and only the educated few see benefits from it that
possibly out way all the negativity that circulates about fracking. People on both sides have to
better come together to create a better more sustainable life style on both sides of the token.
STEP 7: Identify Conflict between Insights and Their Sources:
There are conflicting issues between business and environmental architecture. The
reason there are these issues would be due to the fact that business is looking at things from a

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good profit sense and the environmental understanding and architecture is look for the best ways
to design more things in an environmental safe structure for the environment. The major issues
you would be seeing are coming in issues of money and finances. Cost effectiveness vs.
environmental friendly equipment is an issue in what is considered efficient between
environmental architecture and business communication.
The technique that served to be the most helpful to use was the technique of extension for
both business understanding and environmental understanding. This allows for analysis of the
two disciplines through perspectives that can create a common ground for better understanding.
These different perspectives used when both dissecting business understanding and
environmental understanding allow for common comparisons to be made that can then tie each
discipline together for better understanding.
STEP 8: Create Common Ground:
“Interdisciplinary common ground is one or more concepts or assumptions through which
conflicting insights or theories can be largely reconciled and subsequently integrated, thus
enabling collaborative communication between disciplines.” (Repko, 322) Repko is explaining
through the steps already done that through us examining the common differences encountered
in researching different disciplines and lining up their meaning with the complex problem you
will come across conflicts between different understandings between disciplines. Common
ground must be created when concepts or theories conflict with one another in different
disciplines. To combat this and create a common ground between disciplines; modifying
concepts or theories can be done through their assumptions of the disciplines. (Repko, 323)

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To create common ground between both environmental architecture and business
communication one must look at the concepts and theories between the two. They’re differences
need to be broken down and integrated to create a common ground in preparing for steps 9 and
10 to create solutions needed to apply to the complex problem. The conflict that is experienced
most in this interdisciplinary research is the concepts that revolve around the importance on the
movement of money and the different purposes it serves within each discipline. Common
ground can be create by integrating the concepts of money flow together from both disciplines in
creating a common goal for which profit, community lifestyle and the environment all work
together to create a common ground that can help these two disciplines together to create a few
solutions to the problem while still being cost effective, profitable and healthy for the
environment and betterment of the community.
STEP 9: Construct a more Comprehensive Understanding:
To tie together the research that has taken place there is new understanding about the
different disciplines of research. New insights are learned by integrating the disciplines together
by taking an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the complex problem. Once, common
ground and integration has taken place amongst the steps for understanding the different
disciplines synthesis for potential solutions can take place. The different articles highlight some
of the cons that are involved with hydraulic fracturing.
From the articles, it is learned that failures of the system exploited include the
deregulation of the industry and the risk that such large scale toxic processes create (Winfield,
2013). This can be potentially bad for the environment surrounding communities that are located
next to frack sites. Environmental architecture understanding in these situations can help lead to

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better decisions made by both the communities and fracking operators to prolong the life of the
environment that they surround. Over the long term hydraulic fracturing companies could
change some of their methods to more environmental friendly one's it would give them a better
image in the public's and make for better relations between these companies and the
communities that they operate from.
It is also learned that many boom economies can collapse very quickly because the
resources causing the boom can be limited. We learn part of this from reading Kuiper’s article
about North Dakota’s black gold which talks about trying to prevent a ghost town from occurring
in a town that would be desolate if not for the boom in hydraulic fracturing. Local businesses
within these communities need to plan ahead business wise and invest in the future to stay afloat
in a community that's main source of income is hydraulic fracturing. To do so small businesses
should do a better job of working alongside other business in the community in a competitive
manner. This can create other competitive markets within the community. This is would be a
long term goal to stabilize the economies within hydraulic fracturing communities.
STEP 10: Communicating Results:
From the research learned; it’s understood that if fracking communities had better
communication with the fracking companies contracted out in those communities there wouldn’t
be so many problems of concern. From there they can work together to find better solutions that
create a prosperous natural environment rather than taking away from the environment by their
drilling, extraction and waste methods. They would also need to find a long term solution to
creating sealed holding tanks and the disposal process of their chemicals when they are done.
The companies and small businesses that then operate in these communities need to come

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together to decide on how to create a stable competitive economy not solely based around only
fracking but other things that are profitable within that region that the community is located.
Communities need to learn how to build other major sources of income and not have all of their
major economy based on fracking. This is a plan that won’t happen overnight, but seeing as
fracking in a lot of towns is still in the beginning stages of being there; now is a better time to
start. Otherwise, when the economic boom is over they will find themselves in a busted
economy, which is the exact problem that needs to be fixed. The long term goal would be for
communities to create long term plans that will revive the environment as well as the economy
and keep it stable throughout the fracking process that will take place. The long term plan
should be set up in a way that we create everlasting stability within these communities. To
further scholarly research one could look more closely into researching what different income
based economy ideas could fit within the different communities. By looking at different
potential business markets it could help in creating long term solutions because there would then
be evidence showing what other markets work in certain areas and which do not. Another
approach to take to this complex problem would be to incorporated community business solely
into the environment and see if a plausible economy could be creating for the community that
would involve taking care of the environment.

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References:
Public express concerns over fracking in their communities. (2014). Engineer (Online Edition),
2.
Boudet, H., Bugden, D., Clarke, C., Maibach, E., Roser-Renouf, C., & Leiserowitz, A. (2014).
"Fracking" controversy and communication: Using national survey data to understand
public perceptions of hydraulic fracturing. Energy Policy, 6557-
67.doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2013.10.017
Kuiper, A. A. (2013). North Dakota’s black gold; preventing America’s newest boomtown from
becoming America’s next ghost town. Oil, Gas & Energy Quarterly, 62(2), 183
Autopoetic landscapes: the architectural implications of mining the Marcellus Shale. [serial
online]. 2013; Available from: OAlster lpswich, MA. Accessed September 27, 2014.
Tayler, M. R. (2012). Jewish marriage as an expression of Israel's conflicted identity. In Repko, A. F.
Newell, W. H. Szostak, R. (Eds.) Case Studiesin Interdisciplinary Research. (pp. 23-51). Los
Angeles, CA: Sage.
Repko, A. F. (2012). Interdisciplinary Research: process and theory. (2nd Eds.) Los Angeles, CA:
Sage. ISBN: 978-1-4129-8877-3