Constructing Responsibilities for Risk: Negotiating Citizen — State Relationships

Abstract

The paper examines the ways in which citizens negotiate responsibility in relation to various environmental and technological risks. It focuses on the role of agency and the way that this figures in constructions of relations of responsibility between individuals and institutions. A central argument is that, across the different issue contexts, patterns of perceived agency are crucial to understanding the apparent contradiction in citizens' attributions of role-responsibilities for the management of risk. The empirical basis of the paper is a series of twelve reconvened focus groups conducted at locations around England, giving a total of twenty-four meetings, in which citizens discussed six different areas of technological risk: genetically modified (GM) crops, genetic testing, mobile-phone handsets; mobile-phone masts; radioactive waste; and climate change. The authors highlight the problem of citizen ambivalence towards responsibility, tracing it to perceived tensions affecting both citizen and state performances of responsibility, and conclude by discussing the implications for policy and by outlining an agenda for further research.

Effects of Early-Onset Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Field Exposure (GSM 900 MHz) on Behavior and Memory in Rats

“…Bickerstaff, simmons & Pidgeon 2007;law & Mcneish, 2007;Moore & stilgoe 2009;Wiedemann & schütz, 2008 …”

The Concept of “Genetic Responsibility” and Its Meanings: A Systematic Review of Qualitative Medical Sociology Literature

“…For an assessment in terms of the conceptual use of GR, we looked for conclusive definitions of GR in the studies and tracked quotations and references that might expose a theoretical discussion of GR. While we only found 21 studies offering a conclusive definition of GR (Burgess and d' Agincourt-Canning, 2001;d' Agincourt-Canning, 2001Downing, 2005;Hallowell et al, 2006;Arribas-Ayllon et al, 2008a,b, 2011Bickerstaff et al, 2008;Etchegary and Fowler, 2008;Etchegary et al, 2009Etchegary et al, , 2015Raz and Schicktanz, 2009;Dancyger et al, 2010;Hines et al, 2010;Clarke et al, 2011;Weiner, 2011;Donnelly et al, 2013;Boardman, 2014b;D' Audiffret Van Haecke and de Montgolfier, 2015;Ross, 2015), all but 17 of the included studies made reference to non-empirical literature, such as philosophical or bioethical papers referring to or using GR (cf. Data Sheet 1).…”

“…In group D, only two cases, institutions such as a state legislative (Bickerstaff et al, 2008) or insurance companies (van Hoyweghen et al, 2006), acted as agents of GR.…”

Exposing hidden-value trade-offs: sharing wildfire management responsibility between government and citizens

“…From this perspective, attributions of responsibility are shaped not only by instrumental and individualised assessments of agency, causality and capacity, but also by normative and collective assessments of legitimacy, trust, accountability, rights and fairness (e.g. De Marchi and Ravetz 1999;Bulkeley 2001;Bickerstaff and Walker 2002;Bickerstaff et al 2008).…”

“…They show that the standards and expectations against which government and citizen obligations for risk management are determined are held not only in formal rules, but also in less formal and more dynamic social norms, institutions, and political and social discourses (e.g. Halpin and Guilfoyle 2004;Bickerstaff et al 2008;Schneider 2008).…”