Abstract
This chapter deals with the relation between public policy making and public opposition in the case of siting hazardous technologies, especially noxious wastes and nuclear power plants. Our main purpose is to show that the realisation of a site — or, what might be considered to be the opposite, its prevention by local residents and environmental protection groups — by no means solely depends on the way ‘the public’ perceives risk and is decided to resist a facility. By and large the butcome of a siting process is determined by the way governmental agencies perceive social reality and behave according to their perceptions. Different siting strategies used by national, regional and local authorities are not seldom based on different sets of assumptions, here called policy-theories (Leeuw, 1986; Van de Vall and Ulrich, 1986).
Our arguments are largely based upon the findings of a study entitled: Het kiezen van lokaties voor gevaarlijk (radioaktief) afval (Siting decisions for radioactive waste), financed and published by the Department of Housing, Physical Planning and Environmental Affairs, The Hague, The Netherlands. We acknowledge the contribution of Pieter Jan Stallen who co-authored that study.
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Hisschemöller, M., Midden, C.J.H. (1989). Technological Risk, Policy Theories and Public Perception in Connection with the Siting of Hazardous Facilities. In: Vlek, C., Cvetkovich, G. (eds) Social Decision Methodology for Technological Projects. Theory and Decision Library, vol 9. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2425-3_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2425-3_10
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