Arsenic Fields: Community Understandings of Risk, Place, and Landscape

Abstract

AbstractThis is a study of the communication of environmental risk associated with the planned removal of arsenic from the copper mining fields in Riddarhyttan, central Sweden. The study was implemented using in-depth interviews with community residents and representatives from the local, regional, and national governments, as well as walk-and-talk sessions near contaminated grounds to learn about the value of these places to local people and their reflections on risk. The study identified how local residents had to navigate between messages from authorities that touching stones could be life threatening at the same time as they were told that risk was non-existent. This resulted in mixed and affective feelings regarding place, community, and the role the copper industry had played in the past. The case is an illuminating example of how perception and communication is embedded in the social and cultural reality of local communities.