Understanding expressed low concern and latent concern near a hazardous waste treatment facility

Social-Ecological Thresholds in a Changing Boreal Landscape: Insights from Cree Knowledge of the Lesser Slave Lake Region of Alberta, Canada

“…Following the incident the provincial government issued a health advisory recommending limiting the human consumption of wild fish (6 oz/week), and wild game (13 oz/month) harvested within a 30 km radius of the site. In 2009, another leakage, initially not reported or investigated by the Government of Alberta, further compounded local concerns about contaminants in the regional ecosystem (Baxter and Lee 2004).…”

Residents' behaviour as a function of cognitive appraisals and affective responses toward a petrochemical industrial complex

“…The literature has explored the impact on people's living conditions of residing in the vicinity of these complexes and other kind of contaminating installations such as waste disposal sites, nuclear power plants etc. (see, for example, Atari et al, 2011;Axelsson et al, 2013; Baxter and Lee, 2004;Burningham and Thrush, 2004;Castan-Broto et al, 2007;Cutchin et al, 2008;McGee, 1999;Phillimore and Moffatt, 2004;Venables et al, 2012). The approach these studies take emphasises the negative connotations associated with the effect that industrial pollution and environmental deterioration have on residents' quality of life.…”

“…However, some of them, from a qualitative methodology, also explicitly highlight the economic benefits of these complexes as compensatory for poor physical environment and the negative consequences of installation closures, generally in terms of job losses (Atari et al, 2011;Baxter and Lee, 2004;Burningham and Thrush, 2004;McGee, 1999). Local communities want a clean and healthy environment, but are also interested in economic/industrial development that provides employment (Azapagic, 2004).…”

Industrial pollution, spatial stigma and economic decline: the case of Asopos river basin through the lens of local small business owners

“…According to their articulations, pollution is non-existent in their community; it is either an issue of the past which is posing no risks of any kind nowadays or it has been overrated and overstated in the public eye (a reaction also reported by Atari et al, 2011). Considerations that the area is unspoiled were bolstered by maintaining the belief that outsiders overemphasize hazards, also pointed out in the studies of Baxter and Lee (2004), Simmons and Walker (2004). Likewise, this is in line with Greenberg and Schneider's (1996) assertion that place attachment, for local people, is sometimes high in areas considered undesirable by outsiders.…”

“…Focusing on the proposed siting of two landfills in Ontario (Canada), Wakefield and Elliot (2000) identify an array of coping approaches in response to concerns experienced -pragmatic acceptance, sustained optimism, cynical pessimism or radical engagement -while the sense of powerlessness, according to the authors, can lead to either a consecutive or a concurrent usage of multiple coping perspectives. Baxter and Lee (2004) examine the perceptions of residents from the Swan Hills (Canada), regarding a local facility treating hazardous wastes and indicate an emphasis on the related economic benefits as well as skepticism over the negative perceptions of outsiders which are regarded as threat. In this respect, Burningham and Thrush (2001; argue that residents of disadvantaged communities can perceive outsiders' descriptions of their place as offensive, especially when the area is portrayed as "polluted" while the local industry may be "defended" as part of local life and an integral part of the landscape.…”