Protesting Mobile Phone Masts

Risk, Neoliberalism, and Governmentality

Bibliographic Data

ID5337618
AuthorsFrances Drake (0000-0003-1442-5950, University of Leeds, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume36
Issue4
Pages522-548
Publication date2011-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueScience Technology & Human Values (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0162-2439 • E-ISSN: 1552-8251
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0162243910366149
OpenAlexW2108167285
LanguageEN
Citations received21
References cited57

Studies of protests against mobile phone masts typically concentrate on the potential health risks associated with mobile phones and their masts. Beck's Risk Society has been particularly influential in informing this debate. This focus on health, however, has merely served to limit the discussion to those concerns legitimated by science conveniently ignoring other disputed issues. In contrast, this article contends that it is necessary to use a wider notion of risk to understand fully how the current political emphasis on active citizenship may have contributed to the protests. It examines how neoliberal governmentality and the move to empower people are in contention with one another. The study draws upon case material from a small village protest group in United Kingdom and argues that much of the tension arises from the encouragement of the public on one hand to become active citizens but on the other to be passive consumers

Citizenship · Governmentality · Mobile phone · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Sociology · Engineering · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Law · Posthumanist Ethics and Activism · Social Media and Politics

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