‘something happened’: the relevance of the risk society for describing the siting process for a municipal landfill

This paper investigates reactions to a proposed municipal solid waste facility in Southern Ontario supposed to be a low‐level, low probability risk using the risk society framework, developed independently by Beck (1992a, 1992b) and Giddens (1990, 1991). Residents often view risk from environmental hazards as high despite expert assurances that risks are low. The appeal of risk society as a general framework is that it connects quantitative …