Enough is Enough

Emerging 'Self-Help' Environmentalism in a Petrochemical Town

Bibliographic Data

ID4328987
AuthorsAchim Schlüter (0000-0002-0046-7263), Peter Phillimore (0000-0001-7083-2492), Suzanne Moffatt (0000-0002-8553-249X)
Year2004
Volume13
Issue4
Pages715-733
Publication date2004-12-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironmental Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0964-4016 • E-ISSN: 1743-8934
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0964401042000274313
OpenAlexW1989812202
LanguageEN
Citations received7

This paper analyses the emergence of recent activism in Grangemouth, Scotland's major petrochemical centre and an important BP site since 1924. Today this is a town in crisis. In a mood of growing pessimism and distrust, public doubts about the economic security and environmental safety of the town have provoked increasingly vocal local opposition to planning applications which would extend activity in chemicals while economic diversification is denied. The analysis starts by examining local interpretations of the new activism. The authors then move on to consider three alternative explanatory approaches: Douglas's analysis of 'risk positions'; the emerging 'environmental justice' perspective; and the distinction between 'siting' and 'exposure' in environmental controversies. All have explanatory limitations in this context, as public risk concerns are subsumed within rapidly changing judgements about the town's future prospects

Distrust · Environmental ethics · Environmental justice · Environmentalism · Epistemology · Pessimism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Environmental Justice and Health Disparities · History · Law

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