Local Environmental Resistance Against Contamination: Why Don't People Protest?

Protest Against Waste Contamination in the ‘Land of Fires’: Psychological Antecedents for Activists and Non‐activists

“…Drawing on previous research (Scafuto, ; Wandersman et al, ), we built a five‐item scale for measuring perceived costs in relation to protest, which included possible threats to personal safety; time taken from private life, family, and business achievement; and the possibility of being isolated by friends. The answers were collected on a scale ranging from 1 (absolutely untrue) to 7 (absolutely true).…”

“…organizing public meetings, searching for alternative waste management strategies, contacting expert consultants, and influencing local institutions to adopt these strategies). Starting in 2010, Scafuto () conducted a qualitative study in Giugliano through participation in several meetings and sit‐ins. This study found that only a small group of people, mostly organized in committees and in other civic organizations, had steady levels of participation.…”

“…Experiencing an emotion linked to risk seems to stimulate individuals' action for protecting themselves from a hazard (Homburg & Stolberg, ). Different results, however, have shown that concern/fear could be a factor which hinders a clear perception of the problem and, consequently, the implementation of self‐protective behaviour (Hatcher, ; Scafuto, ). Therefore, the role of perceived risk in relation to protest against an environmental threat needs further investigation, especially as regards its affective dimension.…”

“…The second aim is to test the incremental predictive power of a model that includes perceived costs of protest, risk perception, and place attachment, which we have found to be relevant both in the literature about local environmental resistance and in a previous qualitative study conducted in the same context (Scafuto, ).…”

“…Our study explores the antecedents of a local environmental resistance (Edelstein, ) in a specific context, an Italian territory called ‘the Land of Fires’, where illegal waste disposal and toxic waste fires are threatening citizens' health and increasing distrust towards institutions (Scafuto, ). People in this local community have been shown to experience serious health risks and damage, such as an increased incidence of cancer and neonatal malformations (Fazzo et al, ).…”