A Research On Public Perception Of Risk In NIMBY Governance

At present,the NIMBY conflicts happen frequently in China.How to achieve a successful site selection and conduct effective NIMBY governance has become an unavoidable dilemma in the process of urbanization in China.An absolutely safe technology declared by experts has always raised heated debates among the public,amongst the risk dissent has become the main cause of NIMBY conflicts.This paper takes the public perception of risk in Maoming PX project as an example.It starts from the perspective of social constructivism and combines with the related theory of risk society to discuss the formation path of public risk perception and the source of risk dissent in technology decision-making.In Maoming PX project,the public was primarily aware of the risks of pollution,carcinogenicity and their serious consequences,and this awareness interacted and constituted a public risk perception of "I fear".The formation of "I fear" mentality was based on the interpretation,realignment and application of different types of knowledge by those who perceived risks.First of all,the public challenged the scientific knowledge promoted by the governments from top to bottom and constructed new risk knowledge through the Internet or other channels to ?counter-discursive?,which resulted in risk dissent.In other words,the public would selectively use the scientific knowledge to construct their risk perception according to different situations.In addition to scientific knowledge,local knowledge played a more significant role in the shaping public risk perception.The public considered the risk of PX project under their risk knowledge and risk-interest perception model formed by the experience from their daily life.As a result,the risk perception was constructed and amplified through local knowledge in this specific context.In the public perception of risk,the reason why local knowledge was able to defeat the scientific knowledge from the government and lead to risk dissent lies in its institutional environment.The public distrusted the government's risk management based on their real life experience.On the one hand,this public distrustled to their suspiciousness of the scientific knowledge promoted by the governments from top to bottom,and urged the public to search information and use new risk knowledge through the network or other channels.On the other hand,it allowedthe public to associate with the potential risks this project might have,which directly amplify the public risk perception.In addition,the public opinions and local knowledge were excluded from elite decision-making mode in which public knowledge was not taken into decision making process.Therefore,social rationality and scientific rationality were fractured and the public risk dissent and distrust of PX probject appeared.Accordingly,this paper argues that in order to effectively govern the NIMBY conflict,the government should firstly strengthen their risk management to reconstruct public trust.Public participation should also be introduced in risk decision-making,which can be done by government breaking the monopoly of scientific rationality and paying enough attention to the use of local knowledge,in order to achieve the consensus between government and the public about the technology risk and its rules.