Environmental Hazard and Institutional Betrayal

Abstract

In this in-depth case analysis of the massive Guadalupe Dunes oil field spill in California’s San Luis Obispo County, it is argued that understanding community members’ interpretations of risk requires attention to the broader social and historical contexts within which interpretation occurs. This conceptualization differs from conventional approaches to studying risk that tend to treat the phenomena more narrowly, as discrete “variables” that can be measured objectively by experts or that can be assessed as reactions of lay people to single, isolated events. The main finding from this study is that community members’ interpretations of the risks posed by the Guadalupe Dunes spill (the largest in U.S. history) were affected profoundly by the social and environmental history of the local area. In this case, perceptions of present and future risk associated with the massive contamination of Guadalupe Dunes grew more from impressions of the way corporate and governmental institutions in the area mishandled this and previous oil-related hazards than from fear of health risks associated with the discrete Guadalupe Dunes event. Community members reacted to the threat from the immediate event but also experienced a more encompassing sense of risk associated with a perceived breach of trust on the part of corporate and governmental institutions. From their impression of institutional neglect, misconduct, and cover-up, they developed a sense of institutional failure and feelings of betrayal and anger. As this case suggests, when a complete breakdown in trust of this kind occurs, community members’ perceptions of and reactions to risk can be seen as “rational” but cannot be understood as merely calculative responses to the physical hazards associated only with the immediate, discrete event. By reporting how community members and other members of the lay public experienced this more encompassing sense of risk, this study illustrates the critical importance of context in risk research. Implications for developing theories of risk perception are discussed.