Competing perspectives on public involvement: Planning for risk characterization and risk communication about radiological contamination from a national laboratory

Public involvement is increasingly emphasized as part of government agencies' responses to environmental health hazards, including risk characterization and risk communication. For example, there is a growing body of literature on health and risk communication proposing best practices and evalu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Health, risk & society risk & society, 2005-09, Vol.7 (3), p.247-266
Main Authors: Tuler, Seth, Webler, Thomas, Finson, Rachel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Citizen Participation
Communication
department of Energy
Energy
Environmental Policy
Evaluation
Government Agencies
Hazardous products
Hazards
Health
Laboratories
Laboratory
Medical sciences
Miscellaneous
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Public involvement
Public Relations
Q method
Radiation
Risk
risk communication
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Summary:Public involvement is increasingly emphasized as part of government agencies' responses to environmental health hazards, including risk characterization and risk communication. For example, there is a growing body of literature on health and risk communication proposing best practices and evaluating processes, yet there has been little attention to the ways that preferences for process features and criteria for evaluating success may vary among stakeholders and between stakeholders and government agency staff. This paper reports on a study into how participants associated with an effort to address public health risks from the distribution of plutonium contaminated sewage sludge in Livermore, California, think about the most appropriate way to conduct a process integrating public involvement. Using Q method this paper identifies five perspectives about what constitutes a good collaborative process in this case. The lessons for organizers and participants of risk characterization and risk communication efforts when people subscribe to different (sometimes competing) perspectives about process are discussed.
ISSN:1369-8575
1469-8331
DOI:10.1080/13698570500229622