Space, Power and the Social Construction of Risk: A Case Study of the UK Foot and Mouth Disease Outbreak. K. J. Bickerstaff, University of East Anglia, UK
In this paper we develop an analysis of the social production and deployment of spatial constructions in the lay public’s talk about risk, and, more broadly, reflect on and contrast the spatial practices and representations of scientific and political institutions involved in risk assessment and control. Our discussion examines a major issue which recently forced itself onto the ‘risk’ agenda, namely the UK foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreak in 2001, and focuses on the group discourses of people in two communities differentially affected by the crisis, and in themselves very different spaces and places. We begin with a brief history of the crisis and institutional management of the outbreak before moving on to say a little about the research methodology and the selection of the two case study areas. In the main discussion we review some of the key spatial constructions lay people invoked in three arenas of sense-making; assessing risk, the causes of the outbreak and risk management practices. Following on, we consider the spatial constructions embedded in the scientific and political responses to the FMD risk. In developing our analysis we draw upon theoretical ideas about the relational basis of space - and in particular the interaction of power and knowledge. In doing so we seek to demonstrate the empirical and conceptual value of a more critical approach to notions of space in researching issues of risk. We also point to some of the practical implications of this work, stressing the need for a more open, responsive system of risk expertise that engages and includes identities of place – and confronts the attendant inequities of power and knowledge.
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