Just passing through: the risky mobilities of hazardous materials transport J. Cidell Department of Geography, University of Illinois, 220 Davenport Hall, 607 S. Mathews Ave., Urbana, IL 61801, USA
Received: 03 Aug 2011 – Published in Soc. Geogr. Discuss.: 09 Jan 2012 Revised: 22 Mar 2012 – Accepted: 20 Apr 2012 – Published: 25 May 2012
Abstract. The scientific construction of risk is usually based on the probability of
an event occurring in a specific location from a specific hazard. Hazardous
waste transport is an example of a risk source that is fixed in neither time
nor space, with materials traveling through the landscape. Residents living
along fixed transportation routes likely to experience an increase in the
amount and potency of hazardous materials traveling through their
communities draw on distant places and spaces in order to define the risk
they face as they try to make absent places and materials present. However,
because those places and spaces are distant and absent, regulatory officials
can resist their inclusion by arguing that only what is on site matters.
This site of struggle over sources and construction of risks can best be
understood through Law and Mol's spatiality of fire space. Using two North
American case studies, this paper draws on the concepts of fire space and
mobilities to explain the nature of the risk that mobile materials pose,
including the disconnect between citizens' objections to increased hazardous
materials transport and the environmental review and regulatory processes
meant to prevent catastrophes from occurring.
Citation: Cidell, J.: Just passing through: the risky mobilities of hazardous materials transport, Soc. Geogr., 7, 13-22, doi:10.5194/sg-7-13-2012, 2012.