Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Dr Salim Vohra
CIWEM Planning and Building Healthier Communities
Peter Brett Associates 26th April 2007
Why understand community perceptions of risk?
Risk Trust
Percept Gap
ion
Knowledg
Gap
e
The differences
between how Gap
public health
experts view
Values
health risks and
how the general
Gap
public views
them creates a
Democr
gap in the atic Gap
understanding
and perception of
health risks
Three major perspectives on risk perception
Rationality
Rational Actor Paradigm – economics & decision theory
Plural Rationality
Multiples Values - Multiple Worldviews - Multiple Perspectives
‘Fright’ Factors
So what’s happening at an individual level?
Direct environmental, social Planning and siting process Power, values and identity
and economic concerns concerns concerns
traffic powerful stakeholders
not enough information
are dishonest, selfish,
air pollution more time for
imposing, and
noise consultation
disrespectful of locals
degrade/ blight area inadequate impact
smell assessment utilitarian, libertarian vs.
future operation how site chosen and egalitarian notions of
others considered justice
health
no community benefits breaching of Chaging community
leakage planning rules identify and sense of
house prices conflicts of interest space and place
direct concerns
process concerns
symbolic concerns
How can we deal with this?
Lay people are just experts on their day off !!
Emotion, intuition, imagination and reason are closely intertwined in scientific and
lay understandings of the world
Lay risk assessment is broader and wider taking in social, cultural, economic and
political aspects
Differentials in power, differences in values & different identities are key influences
on lay and expert perceptions of risks