It's hard to keep a good town down: local recovery efforts in the aftermath of toxic contamination

Abstract

Our paper reports a toxic disaster in St Louis, Michigan and surrounding non- metropolitan Gratiot County that was linked to the contamination of Michi gan's human food chain with the fire retardant polybrominated biphenyl (PBB) in the 1970s. This case produced a resilient local response as area officials and residents worked to obtain outside resources for contamination problems with out destroying the fabric of community life. The Gratiot County case cautions against overgeneralizing about the inevitability of community conflict follow ing toxic disasters. Nevertheless, area strategies based on recognition of limi tations on the County's place in the larger political system defined an inher ently reactive response with long-term costs for area recovery.

Community‐Level Social Support Responses in a Slow‐Motion Technological Disaster: The Case of Libby, Montana

“…Scholars have suggested that a community's history and cultural values may affect its responses to a disaster (e.g., Aronoff and Gunter 1992; Kroll-Smith and Couch 1990). The Libby community's history and cultural values suggest that in the past (and outside of the asbestos context), an outpouring of social support typically occurred in response to crises, particularly when they could be addressed with instrumental support.…”

“…We plan to conduct further analyses that will explore the root causes of that community conflict, specific issues in contention, and issues of community-level consensus so that interventions can be designed and tested to reduce community-level conflict and thereby improve both social support and health/medical responses to the disaster. Aronoff and Gunter (1992, p. 85) suggested that conflict is greatest in disasters when competing social constructions of the disaster stigmatize segments of the population. Stigma was one of the most commonly discussed topics among our participants.…”

“…Further, the absence of conflict does not necessarily ensure social support responses. Consistent with this argument, numerous researchers have suggested that a community's social history and cultural values (e.g., Aronoff and Gunter 1992; Kroll-Smith and Couch 1990) may predict the nature of community disaster responses. Second, the literature typically concludes that community conflict characterizes technological disasters.…”

“…Second, the literature typically concludes that community conflict characterizes technological disasters. However, some evidence indicates that community consensus and cohesiveness can emerge in slow-motion technological disasters (e.g., Aronoff and Gunter 1992; Edelstein 2004; Freudenberg 1984). Third, although case studies have established a common pattern of community conflict in slow-motion technological disasters, with accompanying but largely passing reports of lack of civility and absence of social support, systematic studies focusing specifically on social support processes need to be conducted to confirm these observations and to clarify the nature and dynamics of communities' social support responses.…”

The Impact of Economic Shocks on Quality of Life and Social Capital in Small Towns*

“…Even shocks that were encouraged and planned by local leaders, such as bringing in a major employer, will cause stress to community residents as they adjust to the greater traffic, new construction, and new residents; and may negatively impact social solidarity and quality of life, at least temporarily (Brown, Dorius, and Krannich 2005;Humphrey and Wilkinson 1993;Ramsay 1996;Smith, Krannich, and Hunter 2001). Ostensibly negative shocks such as losing a major employer (Dudley 1997), toxic contamination (Aronoff and Gunter 1992b;Gunter, Aronoff, and Joel 1999), and natural disasters (Erikson 1994) may lead to positive outcomes for communities as residents work together and bring in outside resources to rebuild and replace aged infrastructure with more functional and aesthetically appealing buildings. The community disaster literature reviewed below provides insight into the attributes of shocks which are likely to be associated with positive and negative community outcomes.…”