Public at Risk—Public as Risk: Regulating Nature by Managing People
2016
Lidskog, Rolf
This article analyzes how Swedish authorities handled strong public demands to reduce an insect population that constituted a human nuisance. The empirical data consist of interviews and public records. The analysis finds that the public demands were seen as a particular risk, with public outrage and loss of political legitimacy becoming part of the risk panorama that the responsible agencies had to handle. Four mechanisms in particular were used to regulate public responses: dissemination of uncertainty; development of symbolic action; individualization of responsibility; and naturalization of the problem. Through these mechanisms, governmental agencies succeeded in influencing stakeholders’ understandings and modifying their demands. Thus, what took place was a process of governing not only nature, but also people.
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