Defining Disaster: Local Constructions for Recovery in the Aftermath of Chemical Contamination

Aronoff, Marilyn; Gunter, Valerie J.

doi:10.2307/3097015

Cited by 24 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Third, while some cases that do not conform to the CTD corrosive pattern have been reported in the literature (Gould, Schnaiberg, and Weinberg 1996;Greenberg and Schneider 1996;Claus 1995;Aronoff and Gunter 1992a;1992b), their implications have not yet been incorporated systematically into an appraisal of the existing CTD paradigm. In particular, the existence of such nonconforming cases suggests the need for an approach that can deal accurately with response variability.…”

Section: The Ecological-symbolic Perspective and Chronic Technologicamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In both cases, interpretive frameworks linked to local community contexts functioned to "domesticate danger." Based on our observations in these two settings we conceptualized this as a reaction to local contamination in which, although the existence of a threatening condition was acknowledged, it was dealt with through familiar strategies that tended to moderate its exotic and unfamiliar attributes (see also Aronoff and Gunter 1992a;1992b). Domestication arises when toxic contamination problems are comprehended in terms of their similarity to other local challenges, rather than as unfathomable, unfamiliar happenings.…”

Section: Domesticating Dangermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, for example, county and city officials labeled the primary danger of local contamination as an "economic one," moving contamination into an institutional realm with which they had considerable experience, rendering it a more familiar and therefore con-ceivably more manageable problem. Drawing on action templates used to address other challenges, they contacted state and federal officials, tried to negotiate a compromise agreement with Velsicol to keep the plant open, and succeeded in securing a $1.2 million redevelopment grant from the Economic Development Administration (for a more extensive discussion, see Aronoff and Gunter 1992a;1992b).…”

Section: Domesticating Dangermentioning

confidence: 99%

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Toxic Contamination and Communities: Using an Ecological-Symbolic Perspective to Theorize Response Contingencies

Gunter

Aronoff

Joel

1999

The Sociological Quarterly

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The ecological-symbolic perspective posits that community response to toxic contarnination is shaped by both the nature of the environmental disruption and the interpretive frames through which those disruptions are apprehended. Full utilization of this perspective has been hampered by the deterministic underpinnings of the current chronic technological disaster model, which presents local conflict as a virtually inevitable outcome of these events. We draw upon the more contingent framing of the ecologicalsymbolic perspective to analyze the experiences of two communities that displayed consensual response patterns. We identify ecological and organizational factors that facilitated an interpretive framing of "limited danger".Complex problems associated with technological hazards have risen to increasing prominence in the decades since World War I1 (Cutter 1993). Such technically based disasters confront community residents with unprecedented dilemmas (Kroll-Smith, Couch, and Marshall 1997; Kroll-Smith 1995). Reflecting on the reactions to such crises, researchers have reported a convergence toward a community response pattern that William R. Freudenburg and Timothy R. Jones (1991) have labeled "the corrosive community" and that Kai Erikson (1994) has attributed to "a new species of trouble." Inherent in this second designation is the idea that toxic, contamination constitutes a disruption of biospheric processes profoundly different from anything that has preceded it in human history. In communities confronted by this "new trouble," the "ties that bind" neighbors, families, and friends become unglued, setting in motion a pattern of intracommunity conflict (Freudenburg 1997). ~ ~~~Direct all correspondences to Valerie Gunter,

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Section: The Ecological-symbolic Perspective and Chronic Technologicamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Domesticating Dangermentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Domesticating Dangermentioning

confidence: 99%

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Toxic Contamination and Communities: Using an Ecological-Symbolic Perspective to Theorize Response Contingencies

Gunter

Aronoff

Joel

1999

The Sociological Quarterly

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“…Technological disasters involve a breakdown in manmade systems (e.g., airplane crash, chemical spill, failure of a dam, and leakage of industrial contaminants) that often occur without warning, and may go unnoticed for some time by those affected [1,2,3]. Large-scale public health emergencies have the potential to overwhelm the local health care system at multiple time points including the acute response period and throughout recovery and reconstruction.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prediction of Unmet Primary Care Needs for the Medically Vulnerable Post-Disaster: An Interrupted Time-Series Analysis of Health System Responses

Runkle

Zhang

Karmaus

et al. 2012

IJERPH

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Disasters serve as shocks and precipitate unanticipated disturbances to the health care system. Public health surveillance is generally focused on monitoring latent health and environmental exposure effects, rather than health system performance in response to these local shocks. The following intervention study sought to determine the long-term effects of the 2005 chlorine spill in Graniteville, South Carolina on primary care access for vulnerable populations. We used an interrupted time-series approach to model monthly visits for Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions, an indicator of unmet primary care need, to quantify the impact of the disaster on unmet primary care need in Medicaid beneficiaries. The results showed Medicaid beneficiaries in the directly impacted service area experienced improved access to primary care in the 24 months post-disaster. We provide evidence that a health system serving the medically underserved can prove resilient and display improved adaptive capacity under adverse circumstances (i.e., technological disasters) to ensure access to primary care for vulnerable sub-groups. The results suggests a new application for ambulatory care sensitive conditions as a population-based metric to advance anecdotal evidence of secondary surge and evaluate pre- and post-health system surge capacity following a disaster.

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“…In answering this question, we offer an explanation of' consensual community responses in the face of chronic technological disasters (CTDs) that builds on the efforts of Gunter and her colleagues (1999;Aronoff and Gunter 1992). We attempt to broaden the perspective introduced by Stephen R. Couch and Steve Kroll-Smith (1985), and later supported by others (Kroll-Smith and Couch 1990;Freudenburg and Pastor 1992;Couch and Kroll-Smith 1994;Erikson 1994;Freudenburg 1997), that has tended to focus primarily on "corrosive community" responses (Freudenburg and Jones 1991) to CTDs.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Toxicity and Complicity: Explaining Consensual Community Response to a Chronic Technological Disaster

Zavestoski

Mignano

Agnello

et al. 2002

The Sociological Quarterly

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The absence ol' citiLcn mobilization following the announcement oP high levels of dioxin in a New England rivcr, and subsequent Superfund listing, is cxplained in light of previous research that stresses the conflict and controversy that surround community contamination. Interviews with area residents and government officials, observations of public meetings, and content analyses of newspapcr articles, EPA press releases, and other official documents provide three explanations for the absence of citizen mobilization: (1) shared knowledge of the community's industrial history meant the river's contamination did not disrupt taken-for-granted assumptions about the community, (2) the "discovery" of the contamination by a government agency and its subsequent impression management served to defuse the public outrage that would otherwise lead to controversy and confrontation, and (3) elected officials, who were able to get resources to the agencies that could handle the problem, supported the decisions of the agencies rather than criticiring them or accusing them of negligence.

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Defining Disaster: Local Constructions for Recovery in the Aftermath of Chemical Contamination

Cited by 24 publications

References 12 publications

Toxic Contamination and Communities: Using an Ecological-Symbolic Perspective to Theorize Response Contingencies

Toxic Contamination and Communities: Using an Ecological-Symbolic Perspective to Theorize Response Contingencies

Prediction of Unmet Primary Care Needs for the Medically Vulnerable Post-Disaster: An Interrupted Time-Series Analysis of Health System Responses

Toxicity and Complicity: Explaining Consensual Community Response to a Chronic Technological Disaster

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