Abstract
Contamination became a widely recognized facet of modern reality in the 1970s after such events as the discovery of buried hazardous wastes at Love Canal in Niagara Falls, New York and the spread of dioxin following an explosion at a pharmaceutical plant in Seveso, Italy. In these instances, reflecting chronic and acute cases of contamination, residents were relocated and permanent ‘dead zones’ were created on the landscape. Based upon such events, contamination emerged as the prototypical ‘new species of trouble,’ challenging modernity and forcing the transition toward a new postmodern society.1 Here it is argued that an understanding of this transition can be drawn from the experience of pollution’s victims. Using observations derived from empirical studies of the contamination experience, it is possible to confirm the largely European sociological representation of postmodernity, as depicted by Ulrich Beck’s theory of the ‘risk society.’2 At the same time, limits to the risk-society formulation also become apparent.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
K. Erikson, A New Species of Trouble: Explorations in Disaster, Trauma, and Community ( New York: W. W. Norton, 1994 ).
U. Beck, Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity ( London: Sage, 1992 ).
M. Edelstein, Contaminated Communities: The Social and Psychological Impacts of Residential Toxic Exposure ( Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1988 ).
L. Gibbs, Love Canal: My Story ( Albany: State University of New York Press, 1982 );
A. Levine, Love Canal: Science, Politics and People ( Lexington, MA: Lexington Press, 1982 ).
See S. Couch and J. S. Kroll-Smith, ‘The Chronic Technical Disaster: Toward a Social Scientific Perspective,’ Social Science Quarterly, 66 (4) (1985): 564–75.
This approach has been termed ‘local’ or ‘popular’ epidemiology. See P. Brown and E. Mikkelsen, No Safe Place: Toxic Waste, Leukemia, and Community Action (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990).
M. Edelstein, ‘Psycho-social Impacts on Trial: The Case of Hazardous Waste Disposal,’ pp. 153–76 in D. Peck, ed., Psycho-social Effects of Hazardous Toxic Waste Disposal on Communities ( Springfield, IL: Charles Thomas, 1989 )
M. Edelstein, ‘When the Honeymoon is Over: Environmental Stigma and Distrust in the Siting of a Hazardous Waste Disposal Facility in Niagara Falls, New York,’ Research in Social Problems and Public Policy, 5 (1) (1993): 75–96.
M. Edelstein and A. Wandersman, ‘Community Dynamics in Coping with Toxic Exposure,’ pp. 69–112 in I. Altman and A. Wandersman, eds, Neighborhood and Community Environments (New York: Plenum Press, 1987) and Edelstein, Contaminated Communities.
M. Fowlkes and P. Miller, Love Canal: The Social Construction of Disaster ( Washington, DC: Federal Emergency Management Agency, 1982 ).
M. Edelstein, ‘Disabling Communities: The Impact of Regulatory Proceedings,’ Journal of Environmental Systems 16(2) (1986/87): 87–110;
A. Irwin, Citizen Science: A Study of People, Expertise, and Sustainable Development ( London: Routledge, 1995 );
R. Sclove, Democracy and Technology ( London: Guildford Press, 1995 ).
M. Gibbs, ‘Psychological Dysfunction as a Consequence of Exposure to Toxics,’ pp. 47–70 in A. Lebovitz, A. Baum, and J. Singer, eds, Health Consequences of Exposure to Toxins ( Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1986 ).
See also L. Palinkas, J. Petterson, J. Russell, and M. Downs, ‘Community Patterns of Psychiatric Disorders After the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill,’ American Journal of Psychiatry, 150 (10) (1993): 1517–23;
J. S. Picou, D. Gill, C. Dyer, and E. Curry, ‘Disruption and Stress in an Alaskan Fishing Community: Initial and Continuing Impacts of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill,’ Industrial Crisis Quarterly, 6 (1992): 235–57.
See K. Erikson, Everything in Its Path (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1976 );
J. S. Kroll-Smith and S. Couch, The Real Disaster is Above Ground: A Mine Fire and Social Conflict ( Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1990 );
A. Shkilnyk, A Poison Stronger than Love ( New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985 );
W. Freudenburg and T. Jones, ‘Attitudes and Stress in the Presence of a Technological Risk: A Test of the Supreme Court Hypothesis,’ Social Forces, 69 (4) (1991): 1143–68.
See also C. Dyer, D. Gill, and J. S. Picou, ‘Social Disruption and the Valdez Oil Spill: Alaskan Natives in a Natural Resource Community,’ Sociological Spectrum 12(2) (1992): 105–26; Palinkas et al., ‘Social, Cultural, and Psychological Impacts of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill’; and Picou et al., ‘Disruption and Stress in an Alaskan Fishing Community.’
See, for example, N. Weinstein, ‘Optimistic Biases About Personal Risks,’ Science, 246 (1989): 1232–3.
See, for example, S. Berman and A. Wandersman, ‘Fear of Cancer and Knowledge of Cancer: A Review and Proposed Relevance to Hazardous Waste Siters,’ Social Science and Medicine, 31 (1) (1990): 81–90.
H. Vyner, Invisible Trauma: The Psycho-social Effects of Invisible Environmental Contaminants ( Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1988 ).
See also A. Baum, R. Flemming, and J. Singer, ‘Coping with Victimization by Technological Disaster,’ Journal of Social Issues, 39 (3) (1983): 117–38.
Edelstein, Contaminated Communities. See also B. McKibben, The End of Nature ( New York: Anchor Books, 1989 );
M. Olsen, D. Lodwick, and R. Dunlap, Viewing the World Ecologically ( Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1992 );
L. Milbrath, Environmentalists: Vanguard for a New Society ( Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984 ).
M. Edelstein, ‘Toxic Exposure and the Inversion of Home,’ Journal of Architecture and Planning Research, 3 (1986): 237–51
J. Fitchen, ‘When Toxic Chemicals Pollute Residential Environments: The Cultural Meanings of Home and Homeownership,’ Human Organization, 48 (4) (1989): 313–24.
See also W. Freudenburg, ‘Risk and Recreancy: Weber, the Division of Labor, and the Rationality of Risk Perceptions,’ Social Forces, 71 (4) (1993): 909–32.
See, for example, R. Bullard, Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class, and Environmental Quality ( Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1990 ).
M. Edelstein, ‘Public and Private Perceptions of Risk,’ pp. 60–4 in T. Burke, N. Tran, J. Roemer, and C. Henry, eds, Regulating Risk: The Science and Politics of Risk ( Washington, DC: The International Life Systems Institute Press, 1993 ).
M. Edelstein, ‘The Psychological Basis for the “NIMBY” Response,’ pp. 271–8 in J. Andrews, L. Askew, J. Bucsela, D. Hoffman, B. Johnson, and C. Xintaras, eds, Proceedings of the Fourth National Environmental Health Conference: Environmental Issues — Today’s Challenge for the Future ( Washington, DC: Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, November, 1990 ).
M. Edelstein and W. Makofske, Radon’s Deadly Daughters: Science, Environmental Policy, and the Politics of Risk ( Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1998 ).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2000 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Edelstein, M.R. (2000). ‘Outsiders Just Don’t Understand’: Personalization of Risk and the Boundary Between Modernity and Postmodernity. In: Cohen, M.J. (eds) Risk in the Modern Age. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-62201-6_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-62201-6_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-62203-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-62201-6
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)