Public Understanding of Local Lead Contamination

Authors

Jill McNew-Birren, Marquette UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Language

eng

Format of Original

18 p.

Publication Date

2013

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Source Publication

Public Understanding of Science

Source ISSN

0963-6625

Abstract

Residents of Herculaneum, Missouri have been influential in shaping the management of contamination challenges resulting from the community’s proximity to the last primary lead processing plant in the United States. This paper provides a nuanced examination of two perspectives of resident activist groups involved in lead-related controversy in Herculaneum. Ethnographic data collection and storyline analysis were used to trace the evolution in local views from resembling an industrialist–environmentalist dichotomy to more compromising positions associated with ecological modernization. Implications for characterizing public environmental perspectives in the US as beginning to entertain certain aspects of the ecological modernist paradigm are discussed.

Comments

Accepted version. Public Understanding of Science, Vol. 23, No. 8 (November 2014): 929-946. DOI. © 2014 SAGE Publications. Used with permission.

Recommended Citation

McNew-Birren, Jill, "Public Understanding of Local Lead Contamination" (2013). College of Education Faculty Research and Publications. 333.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/edu_fac/333