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Abstract
Wealth production within a "risk society" typically depends on production technologies that expose citizens to dangerous substances. Knowledge of such exposure is, more often than not, hidden from the public. Empirical analyses show that citizens' claims of illnesses caused by risky exposures are frequently contested by the institutions that select production technologies and, control information: the government, corporations, and physicians. In this article, we use the risk society thesis as aframeworkfor addressing gaps in the environmental illness literature-specifically, the basis for authorities' contestations of illness claims for which the exposure-illness link is scientifically confirmed. Using case methods, including in-depth interviews with 124 citizens, analyses center on the contested illness claims of nuclear weapons workers at the federal Oak Ridge Nuclear Reservation. Results highlight how institutional and organizational resources provided authorities with tactical leverage, and allowed them to manufacture an ambiguous climate for public discourse. This discourse focused on the exposure-illness linkfor a particular individual and their specific symptoms rather than the established exposure-illness links in general. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for analyses of environmental exposure specifically, but also the seemingly contradictory tension between the risk society s need to restrict information to experts and democracy sneed for open discourse.
Author Analytic
Cable, Sherry; Tamara L. Mix; Thomas E. Shriver
Author Combination
Cable, Sherry; Tamara L. Mix; Thomas E. Shriver
Call Number
152.C3.R5 (VF)
Date of Publication
2008 June
ISSN
0003-1224
Issue ID
3
Journal Title
American Sociological Review
Keywords
Risk Analysis ;
Nuclear Hazards ;
Physical Health ;
Location in Work
380-401
Title Combination
RISK SOCIETY AND CONTESTED ILLNESS: THE CASE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS WORKERS
Title Analytic
RISK SOCIETY AND CONTESTED ILLNESS: THE CASE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS WORKERS
Volume ID
73
Workform
Journal_Short_Form
Id
dec44a52-9203-4737-9a72-7caf6d620b63
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