From rains of graphite to a flood of complaints: Understanding the process of (dis)trust in companies
Master Thesis
Note: reproduced with permission of responsible photographer
Program: Political Science (Track Public Policy and Governance) Module: Contested Knowledge and Alternative Facts
Author: Wessel Smit Student number: 11051876
Supervisor: Mrs. dr. A.M.C. (Anne) Loeber Second reader: Mr. dr. D.W. (David) Laws
Word count: 21.401 (including in-text references, headers, tables and figures) Date: 21/06/19
Table of contents Preface ... 5 1. Introduction ... 7 2. Theoretical framework ... 10 2.1 Introduction ... 10 2.2 Enter trust ... 11
2.3 Risk as an imaginative practice ... 12
2.4 The process of actively constructing trust ... 14
2.5 Risk and trust: a reassessment ... 15
3. Research design and methods ... 16
3.1 Case selection ... 16 3.2 Methodology ... 16 3.2.1 Literature analysis ... 17 3.2.2 Media analysis ... 18 3.2.3 Interpretative analysis ... 20 3.2.4 Risk frames ... 21 3.2.5 Framing analysis ... 23
4. The existence of Tata Steel within the IJmond-region ... 24
4.1 Introduction ... 24
4.2 Empirical genealogy of the case ... 24
4.3 Theoretical classification ... 27
4.4 In summary ... 30
5. Changing risk perceptions: the manifestation of risk ... 30
5.1 Introduction ... 30
5.2 Increasing nuisance and growing attention ... 32
5.3 Risk and trust associations ... 32
5.4 Something new under the sun ... 34
5.5 In summary ... 37
6. Trust under construction: to live or not to live in the IJmond? ... 37
6.1 Introduction ... 37
6.2.1 Information meeting 1: Setting the stage ... 38
6.2.2 Phase 1: Fighting a running battle ... 40
6.2.3 Information meeting 2: A puzzle missing pieces ... 43
6.2.4 Phase 2: Turning the tide ... 47
6.3 In summary ... 50
7. Conclusion and discussion ... 51
8. References ... 55
9. Appendix I: Respondents ... 59
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Preface
The majority of this master thesis is the outcome of personal sacrifices. However, describing my research and writing process in hackneyed terms such as blood, sweat and tears would be somewhat tiresome. As a student and researcher in the making, I highly depend upon others to succeed in constituting a cohesive and persuasive argumentation. This is evident after many trips outside of the Amsterdam ring road that I made for the purpose of a case study, which is somewhat uncomfortable for someone born in Amsterdam.
Eventually, this journey resulted in a wealth of empirical data in the form of tens of thousands of words that were an expression of feelings, thoughts and experiences of individuals who I regarded as relevant for my case study. At the heart of it was the question how I, as a researcher, would be able to make sense of this empirical reality in which I myself was partaking and which I myself would co-construct. The difficulty therein is to strike a balance between the stories provided by the various people I spoke with, without being unjust to their beliefs and emotions.
Hence, it is my pleasure to characterize this thesis as a collaboration with the research field and other research-oriented people around me, in my attempt to integrate the stories of others and put them into greater perspective. I would like to thank every single respondent for their acces-sibility and cooperation with my study. I also want to thank friends and fellow students who read preliminary chapters or versions of my thesis and provided critical comments, knowing they have had to struggle through sometimes complicated and confusing text documents. But above all, I am obliged to thank my supervisor, mrs. dr. Anne Loeber, for her accessible, in-spiring and unceasingly critical presence during the last semester.
Ultimately it is of course up to the reader, but I think that I succeeded in doing justice to the knowledge and experience of every person who was willing to spend time with me in my at-tempt to reconstruct the story of Tata Steel and its co-existence in the IJmond-region.
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1. Introduction
“I dreamed. I dreamed that I climbed up the Kralenberg and, when I reached the top, looked out over the flat dune that stretched out to the west. The sun had disappeared, the terrain was covered in clouds of steam. Above that base were black figures of no less than fifty meters high. Every now and then, fierce flames shot up above the steam cloud; in between, bulging steam flights were coloured red with a glow that lighted up from the fire beds.” (Van Rood 1919: 58).
Before the First World War, the Netherlands took advantage of the large-scale steel production abroad (Dankers & Verheul 2018a: 25-27). However, this dependency resulted in major eco-nomic damage when a world war emerged. All of a sudden, the steel industry of neighbouring countries got caught up in an arms race. The above quotation stems from the Dutch architect Albert Hendrik van Rood, who was responsible for the construction of the Royal Dutch Blast Furnaces in IJmuiden, near the North Western coast of the Netherlands in the province of Noord-Holland. He poetically expresses the desire of the Dutch government to become inde-pendent in its need for steel (idem: 28). By igniting the first blast furnace in January 1924, an unceasing and constantly growing production of Dutch steel was put in motion (idem: 32-33).
The invocation of the Dutch Governmental Agency for National Planning on behalf of the Reich Commissioner of the Netherlands almost twenty years later was a key moment in this growth (Sommer 2012). It expressed the long-standing ambition of governmental officials in the Netherlands and Germany to systematically steer society into desired directions. In the af-termath of the Second World War, this civil service namely constituted a National Plan to repair the enormous war damage in the Netherlands (Van Panhuis 2008). According to the then direc-tor, Bakker Schut, this was “a general plan that indicates the destination of the Dutch territory, aimed at the harmonious progression of our homeland along pre-determined lines” (Rijksdienst voor het Nationale Plan 2003: 7). The expansion of the steel mill in IJmuiden, that was part of this plan, turned out to be the most important link in this progression (Van Mil & Rutte 2018: 110-111). It contributed to the independency of the Dutch economy in an international perspec-tive and provided dozens of jobs to stimulate the economy on the national level (ibid.).
At the beginning of the 21st century, the steel factory is still active. Clouds of steam, black figures and fierce flames as envisaged by Van Rood indeed cover the horizon when looking over the dune in IJmuiden. The steel company, currently named Tata Steel, managed to socially
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embed itself in the IJmond. This becomes evident by talking to locals, who adopted Tata Steel in their view of what is normal in the IJmond-region. “I just accepted that, if I hung up the washing, I had to clean the washing line first. That was just normal for us.” (Respondent 13). “When you stand on the high dunes, you really think: wow. But still, you are going to push that danger away or something. It won’t be that bad. You know? Everyone lives here, the govern-ment does not intervene, it is 2018. […]. Who am I to say that it is a danger?” (Respondent 4).
However, in the late summer of 2018 residents of its adjacent villages increasingly suffered from graphite rains caused by Harsco Metals, the company that processes slag on the property of Tata Steel (Kreling & Schoorl 2019). Although the community had always lived at peace with their pollutive neighbour, this abrupt appearance of visible nuisance resulted in increasing doubts over potential consequences for the environment and their health (Houtekamer 2019). The entire comings and goings of the steel mill are put into question (Respondent 1). It appears that a latent awareness of risk became manifest. This raises the question what has happened in the IJmond and how to make sense of it?
There is a body of literature that attaches to these questions, which is extensively discussed by Guido Möllering (2006). He elaborates upon the way in which actors cope with risk by explaining how an active construction of trust generates an acceptance to be at risk and live with uncertainty (idem: 10-12). By reasonable substantiations, routines such as rules and regu-lations, and reflexivity in interaction, people actively produce understandings of reality in which risk is suspended (idem: 105-111). Consequently, actors are able to take a leap of faith and trust: in spite of irreducible uncertainty and vulnerability, and although they cannot be absolutely sure what will happen, they act as if the situation they face is unproblematic (idem: 191-192).
Local residents in the IJmond have always been able to trust in view of their latent aware-ness of the risk associated with a physically close danger. However, the sudden presence of black particles in their vegetable gardens, windowsills and children’s playgrounds made risk manifest. By questioning what was going on, they started to actively reconstruct trust. But is this explanation accurate? Is it possible to fully understand the situation in and around Tata Steel via these insights of Möllering? To figure that out, this thesis probes into the role of risk perceptions in the process of actively constructing trust through a case study in a company town in the Netherlands.
The goal of this study is twofold. Firstly, it is to understand and make sense of what hap-pened in the case of Tata Steel in the aftermath of the first reported graphite rain. Although various steps have been taken to prevent further nuisance of graphite in the future by both Tata Steel itself as well as the responsible administrative executive, residents continue to distrust
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proceedings. Secondly, my aim is to gain more insight in the process of actively constructing trust in itself, since the process of suspension that is at the core of actively constructing trust remains to be an abstract conceptual notion. Möllering acknowledges this himself as well in stating that his book “encourages researchers to focus on the leap of faith (suspension) […], but future research needs to identify further ways of substantiating, by theory and application, what the leap of faith entails.” (2006: 196).
Furthermore, trust is treated as a performative concept: an ongoing effort of individuals to continually recalibrate risks by creating, maintaining, or reproducing actions of certainty, thereby consciously making a leap of faith (Giddens 1994: 85-91; Lewis & Weigert 1985: 970-972; Möllering 2013: 53-56; Renn & Levine 1991: 179-181; Szerszynski 1999: 248-250). Re-markably, studies that acknowledge this performative understanding of trust above all study trust in governmental actors (see for example Breeman et al. 2013; Edelenbos & Van Meerkerk 2017; Giddens 1994; Klijn et al. 2016; Lee & Lee 2018; Möllering 2006). However, other au-thors have already argued that it is still unclear whether trust fundamentally differs across levels and referents (Fulmer & Gelfand 2012: 1177-1183). Companies turn out to be an understudied referent in trust research, which is why this study attributes to overcoming this deficit in trust research as well.
Therefore, the central question in this thesis reads: “How do risk perceptions of residents change through their encounter with graphite rains, and how do those changes impact the pro-cess by which residents and Tata Group actively construct trust?” An analysis of changes in risk perceptions in the case of Tata Steel could contribute to overcoming the shortcomings in research on trust, since the concept of trust can be enriched. Besides that, it can be found out whether its notions persist in relation to a corporation. In addition, this study may be a first step towards a sustainable resolution of the relations between governmental and corporate actors and inhabitants of the IJmond, by identifying an alternative, yet currently undervalued expla-nation of the ongoing contestation between residents and Tata Steel.
The follow up of this introduction is structured in six chapters. In chapter 2, I review liter-ature regarding risk and trust to relate the two concepts in a theoretical framework that is used in the remainder of this thesis. Following this, I justify the methodology of my own empirical research in chapter 3. Part of this methods section is the operationalization, which derives from the four sub-questions that guide my research in chapter 4 up to and including chapter 7. At the core of chapter 4 is the question: “What is the role of risk and trust in the case of Tata Steel and its co-existence in the IJmond?” With the aid of literature regarding paternalism, I will extend
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on and substantiate the finding that a latent awareness of risk became manifest as a result of the first graphite rain.
Chapter 5 formulates an answer to the question: “To which extend and how did risk per-ceptions change within this case ever since the occurrence of graphite rains?” Based on two media analyses and in-depth interviews with related actors, I will conclude that risk became present through the event of graphite rains, which preluded the construction of different frames of risk. The question at the heart of chapter 6 reads: “How do changes in risk perceptions impact the suspension of risks within this case?” By analysing the course of events in the aftermath of the first graphite rain, I will demonstrate that changing risk perceptions made residents, em-ployees, corporate and governmental actors interact at cross purposes. They ended up in a spiral of distrust in which every interaction meant to reconstruct trust and suspend risk resulted in the opposite.
Chapter 7 entails the conclusion guided by the question: “What do we learn from the case of Tata Steel?” As it will turn out, suspension is the performance of making a risk absent or present through imaginative practices such as habits and ways of doing. Present risks stand in the way of the construction of trust, since it is more difficult to create a shared understanding of a risk. The lack of such a shared understanding results in accumulating distrust. To escape from a spiral of distrust all actors in my case study should pro-actively engage in interactions aimed at joint reflection and the establishment of a shared understanding of the situation.
2. Theoretical framework
2.1 Introduction
In this thesis I build upon the work of Guido Möllering (2006), who dedicated an influential book to the concept of trust. He defines ‘trust’ as the voluntary acceptance by a trustor to be at risk, based upon a positive expectation of the trustee in a situation of uncertainty (idem: 7-9). Risk is therein an existential feature of trust: uncertainty over possibly negative outcomes re-quires trust, whereas there is no need to trust in the absence of risk (Aven 2012: 34-36). To elaborate upon this conceptual relationship between risk and trust, this chapter will begin with a consideration of the contemporary relevance of the concept of trust. Risk is indispensably connected to this concept and is therefore explained in the section thereafter. Subsequently, the role of risk in relation to the concept of trust will be explained. The relatedness of the two concepts will be set out concisely in the fifth and final section of this chapter.
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2.2 Enter trust
The modernization of western societies in the previous centuries is by scientists often under-stood in terms of what Scott later dubbed the ‘high modernist’ discourse (Newbury 2011: 224-226). This discourse grew in the footsteps of Enlightenment thinkers and continuous scientific and technological progress in the subsequent decades (Giddens 1994: 57-61). Society was steered in accordance with this progress through a form of ‘social engineering’, in which sci-entific inquiry provided governing actors with blueprints applicable to society (Scott 1998: 87-90). These blueprints were designed to and did enhance societal well-being: “Anyone who was, say, sixty years old in Manchester, England, would have witnessed in his or her lifetime a rev-olution in the manufacturing of cotton and wool textiles, the growth of the factory system, the application of steam power […], remarkable breakthroughs in metallurgy and transportation, and cheap mass-produced commodities” (ibid.).
Scott defined high modernism as an unlimited faith in the improvement of human condi-tions through a sweeping, rational engineering of all aspects of social life (1995: 35-36). The establishment and expansion of the Royal Dutch Blast Furnaces in the extension of the National Plan as set out in the introduction clearly stemmed from this back then dominant belief. It was entirely based upon blueprints meant to enhance societal well-being, such as regional reports, plans, development charts, maps, and predictions about population growth and required living space (Van Mil & Rutte 2018: 117-125). However, regardless of the infinite belief herein, so-cietal progress through scientific inquiry was not without boundaries.
Eventually, the resulting accumulation of knowledge initiated to create certainty and con-trol over human life namely achieved exactly the opposite: it made unforeseeable side-effects of societal progression visible. That is what Ulrich Beck characterizes as ‘risk society’, which emerged through modernization as new uncertain and unmanageable areas were created by the very attempts of knowledge production that sought to control them (1994: 5-13). The occur-rence of global warming is therein the prime example: this risk cannot be precisely quantified through investigation due to ignorance of the problem, which is why researchers instead pro-pose “an array of scenarios whose plausibility will be influenced by how many people become convinced of the theses of global warming and take action on that basis” (Giddens 1994: 59).
Therefore, the established institutions of scientific scrutinization upon which ‘sound knowledge’ was to be produced, are no longer accepted as the sole substantiation for legitimate intervention. There are three main reasons for this shift (Epstein 1996: 5-8). Firstly, the nature of contemporary issues for which scientific knowledge is used is often more controversial, think
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for example of climate change. Secondly, different and sometimes contradictory knowledge is increasingly used politically to argue for or against these issues, thereby enhancing contestation instead of resolving it. Thirdly and resulting therefrom, is that science itself is increasingly distrusted, which is not out of the ordinary after “[t]wo world wars, the invention of horrifically destructive weaponry, the global ecological crisis, and other developments in the present cen-tury, [which] might cool the ardour of even the most optimistic advocates of progress through untrammelled scientific inquiry.” (Giddens 1994: 88).
Consequently, knowledge within this risk society is to be established through what Epstein calls ‘impure science’ (1996: 8-12): it emerges out of credibility struggles instead of predeter-mined procedures of scientific inquiry. What is and what is not considered to be a risk is therein based upon the believability of claims and claim-makers, instead of accurate quantifications of hazards. As a consequence, a paradoxical situation occurs. On the one hand, knowledge is needed and used in risk societies to manage uncertainty and risk and steer societal progress. On the other hand, all knowledge that is applicated to this end is contested and amplifies contesta-tion even further. Within such contestacontesta-tions, the convencontesta-tional approach of generating more knowledge does not provide a sustainable resolution, if at all. What then, would be a possible way out of contested knowledge within a society characterized by risk?
In the extension of Epstein’s claim that attaining credibility is at the core of legitimizing knowledge and action, this study argues that the construction of trust constitutes the central precondition in the disentanglement of contesting actors. Actors namely need to act as if there is no risk to overcome uncertainty over outcomes and to attain credible claims, despite the fact that they cannot be sure of this in the absence of clear demarcations of hazards (Möllering 2006: 1-7). Although it thereby seems as if trust suddenly presents a necessary precondition in modern society to manage risk, it is merely that trust has transformed alongside risk. Through the ap-pearance of more and shifting risks in modern risk society, trust can no longer be treated as a stable individual attitude, choice, or outcome.
2.3 Risk as an imaginative practice
How to make sense of these shifting risks? Risk is in general defined as an uncertainty regarding a chance of something bad to happen (Aven et al. 2011: 1074). In quantitative studies, it is attempted to calculate this chance and use it accordingly in a model-based manner. This makes sense when it is endeavoured to manage risk, since an assessment or diagnosis of risk is neces-sary to come up with follow-up measures (Moons et al. 2012). However, risk can be understood in a different way as well. Other, often qualitative studies, argue that risk is not entirely the
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result of cognitive reflexivity as is supposed in quantitative approaches to risk (Lash 1994; Wynne 1996). Instead, these studies assume that risk is also based upon judgements and esti-mations regarding feelings, thoughts and emotions (Lash 2000: 53).
In view of the emergence of a risk society and the necessity of legitimizing knowledge claims as elaborated upon before (Beck 1994: 5-13; Epstein 1996: 1-5), it does not make sense to view risk as a stable or fixed position or category that can be expressed in a number. There-fore, I embrace the latter view on risk, within which risk is conceptualized as a dynamic and fluctuating perception. In understanding these risk subjectivities, I build upon the work of Karen Bickerstaff and Peter Simmons (2009) who see risk as a performative concept. They argue that risk is constituted as being close or distant through discursive practices that fold together dif-ferent times and spaces (idem: 866).
These practices are imaginative: the individual routines, turns of phrase, associations, hab-its and ways of doing through which people make sense of the world make them perceive risk as ‘present’ or ‘absent’ (ibid.). The former is interpreted as the extent to which a risk is experi-enced as salient, whereas a risk is perceived to be inconspicuous conform the latter. However, the absence of risk may have haunting capacities (idem: 867). People have an ‘active blindness’ towards a danger, as they tend to deny it (idem: 867). To give an example, Zonabend quoted citizens living next to a nuclear plant in his book regarding repudiated feelings of anxiety (1993). In line with the idea of an active blindness, a resident states: “You can’t see the plant from my place […] So we’re all right.” (idem: 28-29).
Despite quiescing the risk, the imagination of earlier nuclear disasters persists in the memory of residents and haunts the oppressed feelings of anxiety: “Every time I have an ache, the place comes to my mind.” (1993: 125). This indicates that absent places or events may continue to shape the risk awareness of an outwardly quiet site of danger. Moreover, this aware-ness may be provoked or quiesced through events that establish a sense of danger, referred to as ‘flickering’ (Bickerstaff & Simmons 2009: 867; Ellingson 1995: 135-138). An example of this is provided by Macgill (1987). On the occasion of a radioactive incident with a nuclear plant in 1983, he quotes a man who “didn’t really used to think about it as much until the leakage, since then I’ve started to wonder about it.” (idem: 192).
In summary, at the core of the interpretation of risk by Bickerstaff and Simmons (2009) is the assumption that risk is not determined by physical proximity: risk is “constituted by a com-plex set of practices that absence/presence different space-time connections to place, the haz-ardous site and to risk.” (idem: 865). Hence, it is possible that people differ in the way in which they are aware of a physically present technology. To unfold these different perceptions of risk,
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researchers should probe into individual wordings, associations, habits and manners of acting, since these are expressions of the way in which people interpret their experiences, such as the experience of risk as being ‘present’ or ‘absent’ (ibid.).
2.4 The process of actively constructing trust
When a risk is made present, trust is to be constructed through the acceptance of this risk. This raises the question: why would someone accept to be at risk? According to Guido Möllering, three explanations can be distinguished (2006: 10-12). Firstly, trustors can rationally choose to trust if it is possible to reasonably substantiate that trusting would be in the best interest of the individual. This for example applies to an individual cost-benefit analysis of covering the risk of loss or damage to a cell phone. But a fully reasonable choice would only occur in situations of complete certainty. As stated before, uncertainty is an existential feature of situations in which trust is required. Thus, the first explanation is paradoxical in itself and therefore insuffi-cient.
That is why Möllering appends a second explanation, by which he moves from an agency-oriented towards a structure-agency-oriented explanation. It appreciates the role of institutions in en-couraging or disen-couraging actors to trust, in the sense that trust is often taken for granted in many practical situations. There are many examples of practicalities in which we trust, such as the trust people have in the value on a banknote or trust in fellow drivers in following priority rules at an intersection. However, trust then remains to be treated as a static attitude, choice or outcome based upon reason or routine. It still lacks a process-oriented understanding, according to which trust develops over time.
In the third and final explanation for the acceptance of risk, Möllering annotates reflexivity. Thereby, he does attribute to idea that trust is a process. It infers that actors actively engage in trust-building processes. Trust gradually grows through interactions between individuals and their environment, beginning with relatively small steps. By acting as if actors trust one another, they eventually end up in spirals of trust in which every act reinforces the mutually shared construction of trust (2006: 84-87). Similarly, actors can get bogged down in spirals of distrust when elementary expressions of suspicion degenerate into the construction of distrust.
Ultimately, reason, routine and reflexivity are needed to accomplish trust, but uncertainty and vulnerability always remain present, being existential features of situations in which trust is required. It thus remains unclear how actors trust, which is why Möllering adds the notion of ‘suspension’: the process that enables actors to deal with irreducible uncertainty and vulnera-bility (2006: 105-111). This process embraces the construction of fictions of reality to deal with
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imperfect and incomplete information (idem: 112-115). Through the interactive creation of these fictions, actors manage to have faith in proceedings and bracket out risk (idem: 115-119). In sum, trust is an ongoing process of building fictions of reality on reason, routine, and reflex-ivity to be able to suspend risks whilst maintaining a favourable expectation towards the inten-tions of others.
Although using different terms, Breeman Termeer and Van Lieshout probe into these fic-tions of reality and their role in establishing trust (2013: 39-41). Trust is described as a mental state that is subjectively created through the interpretation of continuous interaction. These in-teractions can therefore be understood as processes of framing in which people give meaning to their surroundings. Accordingly, intensive interaction patterns and shared frames occur, re-sulting in a spiral of trust or, put differently, a continuously reinforced configuration of people who share a same mental state of trust. As interactions within these configurations continue, its members start using similar patterns of thinking, talking and doing.
As a consequence, configurations become so firmly established that people are incapable of reflecting on them, which is when configurations transform into fixations. Interpretations of the trustee should resonate in these configurations if individuals are to take a leap of faith. ‘Distrust’ then, occurs when trustee interpretations fail to resonate, and trustors are not willing to be vulnerable since they start emphasizing risk instead of suspending it (Breeman et al. 2013: 40-41). Thereby, trust like risk is subjectively constructed through continuous interactions, thereby co-creating a fiction of reality.
2.5 Risk and trust: a reassessment
In conclusion, it became clear that risk perceptions are an essential part of the fictions of reality that actors generate to construct trust. Risks determine whether there is a need to construct trust. Actors encountering risks engage in interactive processes of framing through which they con-struct a fiction of reality. Thereby, trust is actively concon-structed depending upon the extent to which actors succeed in suspending the risk they perceive. At the core of this process is the relation between trustor and trustee, as involved actors enter a spiral of trust or a spiral of dis-trust through interaction. By unfolding risk perceptions and probing into the way actors manage to suspend these risks in interaction, the process of actively constructing trust can be investi-gated.
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3. Research design and methods
3.1 Case selection
Through a case study of Tata Steel and its co-existence with the surrounding environment of the IJmond-region, this theoretical course of actions is studied more deeply. The reason for selecting this case is twofold. Firstly, analysing trust in companies on a general level would not do justice to the extensive web of relations between industry and society that is visible on a regional dimension (Dawley & Faler 1976: 466-471). As became clear from the previous sec-tion, the interactions between industry and society are at the core of the construction of trust. By drawing attention to a specific region, the above theoretical connections can be understood more comprehensively. Secondly, the IJmond-region can be considered as a ‘company town’ that is economically as well as socially dominated by the industry of the blast furnaces over the past century (Stoop 1992: 3-6). Therefore, I consider this region to suit the purpose of my thesis best.
Eventually, this empirical case is to be used in a way that it enables me to contribute to existing theoretical insights with respect to the way in which risk perceptions affect the process of actively constructing trust. Therefore, I started exploring the case by reading news articles. To enrich my knowledge derived from this exploration, I discussed the case with two detached actors in so-called helicopter interviews. Both interviewees were journalists for regional news-papers, who bear responsibility for publications about Tata Steel. The starting point of my case study is 2007, the year Tata Steel Group took over the steel factory in IJmuiden, which was at that time managed by the British Steel Corporation (ANP 2007). I set the terminus of my case study the end of March 2019. At that time, it came about that a new Provincial Executive is to be formed in accordance with the elections that month, next to the news that Tata Steel is plan-ning to invest around 100 million euros in its technical inadequacies (Van Eijk 2019). Hence, I regard this moment to mark a new era for residents, since an opportunity occurred to reconstruct trust.
3.2 Methodology
An in-depth analysis of the intricate network between industry and society is considered to be in accordance with the aim of this thesis, which is to gain insight in the process of actively constructing trust in corporations. Following the theoretical framework, it is suspected that trust is actively constructed through a process of suspension in which risk perceptions eventually determine the outcome. This process can be understood as an ongoing exchange of arguments
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between contesting risk frames, which drives entangled actors to reconsider their perceptions on risk and trust. The sub-questions are formulated in a way that the different parts of this process are exposed.
To find meaningful inferences from the case I study, it is thus important to do justice to the social realities and lived experiences of relevant actors, as elaborated upon by Yanow (2007: 115-118). Therefore, I conduct an interpretative approach, assuming that people understand reality within a social context and use past as well as present experiences to construct this reality in a way that it makes sense to them. As a researcher, I am an interpreter as well, since I partic-ipate in the generation of data that I accordingly subject to analysis. Some researcher may view this subjectivity as a problem in view of the attachment of a researcher to the research field, but it can be exploited as an advantage as well. “If multiple interpretations of the same reality are possible, then there is a case for embracing subjectivity in qualitative research rather than dis-missing it as a weakness that dilutes its trustworthiness.” (Jootun et al. 2009: 45).
However, it does imply that it is important for researchers to reflect on their own position-ality in the study by being transparent and making reflections public. Doing so is not easy in the absence of recipes that guide researchers in such a reflection (Yanow 2007: 116). Some guidance is provided by Houghton, Casey, Shaw and Murphy (2013), who dedicated an article to the promotion of rigour in qualitative case study research. Therein, they argue that “the cred-ibility of a study rests on the procedures implemented and the self-awareness of the researcher throughout the research process.” (idem: 15).
These procedures refer to the strategies researchers conduct to attain rigour, which are suc-cessively listed: a prolonged engagement and persistent observation of a case, triangulation in the form of diverse methods to study a same phenomenon, allowing participants to read tran-scriptions of data, audit trail, thick detran-scriptions and reflexivity of a researcher (ibid.) To give expression to the way in which I have attempted to use these strategies, I now turn to the meth-odological justification of each sub-question. In all considerations, I attempted to promote re-flexivity by continuously reflecting on my interpretations, preconceptions, presence and those of the participants, with the aid of my supervisor who questioned my assumptions. It will be-come clear that I use a mixed methods approach to answer my main research question.
3.2.1 Literature analysis
In chapter 4, I formulate an answer to the first sub-question, which I formulated as: “What is the role of risk and trust in the case of Tata Steel and its co-existence in the IJmond?” This chapter starts with an empirical genealogy of the case, which is considered to be necessary in
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light of the historical roots from which current social relations can be understood. Accordingly, I provide a theoretical explanation of these relations with the aid of a body of literature with respect to the concept of ‘paternalism’. Thereby, I complete the picture of the context within which interactions regarding risk perceptions take place. The result of these two steps is an empirical subproblem regarding the occurrence of graphite rains. The sudden change in the awareness of risk provides a strong reason to dive into this story.
3.2.2 Media analysis
In chapter 5, I invigorate this empirical subproblem by dealing with the question: “To which extend and how did risk perceptions change within this case ever since the occurrence of graph-ite rains?” To formulate an answer to this question, I designed a first media analysis in which I consult a database of all published Dutch news articles called Lexis Nexis. The goal of this analysis is to find out to what extent the activities of Tata Steel are associated with nuisance and demonstrate the increasing discursive salience of this nuisance. To this end, I counted the publications about nuisance caused by Tata Steel since 2007. Most if not all news articles re-garding this topic were found through an iterative approach of reading news articles and for-mulating and reforfor-mulating search terms.
The search terms I ultimately used are displayed in the appendix. The former name of the steel mill, Corus, was incorporated in the search terms since this was the official name up till 2010 (Bouwens 2018a: 148-153). With regard to the publications to be studied, the majority of articles were published in the Noordhollands Dagblad. This regional newspaper was selected, since it has the largest circulation. Moreover, other regional newspapers often published iden-tical articles. Nationally, De Telegraaf, NRC Handelsblad, De Volkskrant, Het Financieele Dagblad and Trouw were counted, being the six national newspapers with the largest circulation and representing a broad political range.
Subsequently, I build upon this first media analysis by conducting a second, more extensive media analysis. Therein, the debate regarding nuisance caused by Tata Steel is related to asso-ciations with risk and trust. Through an analysis of news articles that mention Tata Steel, risk and trust associations are quantified through the use of search strings. The aim of this analysis is to provide indications of the discursive salience of risk and trust in news content regarding Tata Steel over a longer period of time. By counting how often terms associated with risk and trust occur in these publications, the role of both concepts within my case can be clarified. To give shape to this method, the technique of ‘tracking discourse’ as elaborated upon by Altheide is used (2000: 292-293). The research practice of this mode of conduct is explained below.
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Dutch national newspapers published little articles on Tata Steel. Therefore, news articles were collected from regional written media through the database of Lexis Nexus for the time period between 2007 and 2019. Articles that mention Tata or Corus were included, which implies that irrelevant news reports were included as well. However, since the search strings regard associ-ations with risk and trust, these articles are excluded in the eventual results. In total, 2,317 articles were gathered. In light of the aim of this content analysis, human coding is considered to be less feasible than an automated approach. Through an automated approach to content analysis via DtSearch, the entire population of news articles could be measured and classified. The search strings were again iteratively created by reading news articles and formulating and reformulating search terms. To create exhaustive search strings, the search terms were first of all distilled out of the first media analysis that was conducted to demarcate the case. From reading news articles and conducting helicopter interviews it appeared that risks associated with Tata Steel could be attributed to the subcategories ‘Nuisance’, ‘Health’ and ‘Environment’. Associations with trust were classified in an identical manner in the subcategories ‘Economic benefits’, ‘Social management’ and ‘Progressive ideals’. Subsequently, the codebook was re-fined through hand coding of a random sample of ten percent of all articles (n = 232). Table 1 below summarizes this operationalization of risk and trust in search strings. A full account of all search string used for the purpose of this content analysis can be found in the appendix.
Table 1: Operationalization of risk and trust into search strings
Concept Subcategory Examples of associations
(transla-tion)
Risk Nuisance Vervuiling, overlast, smerigheid
(Pollution, nuisance, filth)
Health Volksgezondheid, kanker,
aandoe-ning (Public health, cancer, disor-der)
Environment Stofwolken, ongerust,
luchtkwali-teit (Dust clouds, worried, air qua-lity)
Trust Economic benefits Staalreus, werkgelegenheid,
winst-gevendheid (Steel giant, employ-ment, profitability)
Social management Sociale cohesie, verbondenheid,
goede buur (Social cohesion, con-nectedness, good neighbour)
Progressive ideals Duurzaam, transparent,
hoog-waardig (Durable, transparent, high-quality)
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At first glance, some of the search terms associated with the concept of risk may not seem to be a risk solely associated with the activities of Tata Steel. However, all terms had to be men-tioned within an article in which Tata was menmen-tioned as well. During hand coding it therefore turned out that a neutral term such as ‘luchtkwaliteit’ (air quality) or ‘aandoening’ (disorder) was always described as being a risk of living next to or working at Tata Steel. The same applies to search terms such as ‘sociale cohesie’ (social cohesion) or ‘hoogwaardig’ (high quality), which were at all times assessed as being trust associations with Tata Steel.
3.2.3 Interpretative analysis
In the final part of chapter 5, I combine the above investigation of media articles with data from interviews. A detailed account of the data collection through in-depth interviews follows in section 3.2.5. Through an interpretative analysis of this data, my aim is to grasp the changing risk perceptions of residents and employees encountering graphite rains. Recalling earlier the-ory, actors actively construct trust through the creation of fictions of reality (Möllering 2006: 112-119). In interaction with their environment, actors bracket out risks and enable themselves to take a leap of faith (ibid.). Thereby, fictions of reality can be understood as interpretive sche-mata through which actors attempt to understand their experiences by ordering them (Hajer & Laws 2006: 254). It is namely about how involved parties perceive risks associated with an environmental hazard, regardless of its physical proximity (Bickerstaff & Simmons 2009: 865). In methodological terms, these interpretative schemata provide tools “to categorize and organize data into meaningful chunks of information” (Gray 2003: 31). As encountered by Maarten Hajer and David Laws, various authors have come up with new concepts to express this process of ordering (2006: 254). Whether a researcher uses frames, stories or discourses to order reality, all depart from the conviction that language constitutes the vehicle through which reality is to be understood (Van den Brink & Metze 2006; Hajer 1995; Rein & Schön 1994; Yanow 1996). Embracing this language turn implies that a researcher “acquires a concrete focus on the interaction among actors and on the way in which they interactively frame a situation” (Laws & Hajer 2006: 264).
In this thesis, it is all about how involved parties view the type and level of risk associated with an environmental hazard, which is why these interpretative schemata can be operational-ized as being ‘risk frames’ (Gray 2003: 31). To refine this interpretative approach, the work of Gray (2003) is ensued, attributed with more specific insights with regard to an analysis of risk and trust from Bickerstaff and Simmons (2009) and Breeman, Termeer and Van Lieshout (2013). As a result, an analytical framework is distilled out which is used to constitute four risk
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frames from the empirical case study (table 2). All questions stem from the insights of the au-thors mentioned above and relate to individual perceptions that are to be categorized in shared frames of the level and type of risk. How I have given substance to these frames is displayed and substantiated in the next section.
Table 2: Design risk frames
Risk frame question Risk frame element
What is the risk perceived to be? What is the level of risk perceived to be?
Who is perceived to be responsible for causing this risk? What is done to cope with this risk by actors themselves and by others?
What should be done to cope with risk by actors them-selves and by others?
3.2.4 Risk frames
On the basis of desk research, helicopter interviews (2) and analysis of news articles and other related documents, I found that there are four risk frames present in this case study which are preconstructed below. The frames are illustrated by quotes of actors that argue from these frames. These quotes are gathered from in-depth interviews, which I will justify in methodo-logical terms in the next section. I dubbed these frames the guardian frame, within which actors who support Tata Steel argue, the Goliath frame, within which local actors who disapprove Tata Steel argue, the innovator frame, within which corporate actors argue, and the lawbreaker frame, within which governmental actors argue.
3.2.4.1 Guardian frame (local supporters)
Although the graphite rains create an inconvenient black blanket of dust over the living envi-ronment, the dust itself is nothing new. As with earlier incidents with dust and smoke, there are consequences for health and the environment, but what does one expect if one chooses to live next to pollutive industry? Tata Steel is responsible for this pollution, but is doing everything it is able to do to prevent further nuisance in the future, like it has always done. Without Tata Steel, this village would not exist. If you live here, you have to accept the nuisance or leave the village. Tata Steel will resolve the problem, no matter what. A typical example of someone who argues from this frame, stems from an employee of Tata Steel: “I think those people [who started living in the IJmond] just don't have any relationship with Tata Steel. They complain,
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but they just didn't do a proper investigation of where they started living. It [the nuisance] has always been there.” (Respondent 3).
3.2.4.2 Goliath frame (local opponents)
The graphite rains not only cause an inconvenient descension of dust over the village, it is accompanied with consequences for health and the environment. It may be that the visible par-ticles do not cause significant damage, but why then is it advised to wash hands and food reg-ularly? And what about the micro-dust present in the smoke from Tata? We are done with it. “There just is concern. The message from authorities is: 'You can't get it in, wash your hands, but it's okay. Go and have a good time.’ That was always the message that the Municipal Health Service, Tata and the Provincial Executive transpired. [...] But the processing of slag, that still happens out in the open! That has just gone out of date, of course.” (Respondent 11). The whole existence of a pollutive industry next to a serene village with a beautiful beach is outdated. Why do we not consider banning this firm out of our environment? Governmental Executives at the local, provincial or even the national level should intervene to resolve this problem.
3.2.4.3 Innovator frame (steel mill)
The graphite rains are indeed inconvenient, but these incidents overshadow the enormous pro-gress Tata Steel has made ever since it opened its doors. “The appearance of graphite in Wijk aan Zee made us look at other things that we can do better. But that is an agenda that we already have had for a long time.” (Respondent 12). Over the past decades, the company developed and with it the villages accompanying it. Tata Steel made far-reaching investments in the surround-ing communities, for example through the initiation of the world-famous Tata Chess Tourna-ment, not to mention the enormous amount of job opportunities provided by Tata Steel. Besides that, never before could Tata Steel be considered to be this environmentally friendly. In line with this development, everything possible is done to prevent and resolve problems occurring from the nuisance. Recently, for example, Tata Steel confirmed to build a hall covering the processing of ROZA-slag and invest 100 million euros in providing a sustainable resolution for dust nuisance.
3.2.3.4 Lawbreaker frame (responsible authority)
Tata Steel constitutes a significant part of the daily lives of the IJmond-region. The economic interests of the company for the IJmond are enormous. However, this does not imply that pol-lution from this firm should be accepted. “I always say: there must be a balance, but balance is of course an unfortunate wording in that regard. But it must be as safe as possible and with as
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low emissions as possible […]. You see, that is where the shoe pinches sometimes.” (Respond-ent 10). Therefore, Tata Steel is increasingly forced to take measures to prev(Respond-ent and resolve further nuisance, for example by regular enforcement and punishment through already aug-mented penalty payments. Besides that, research and information evenings are initiated, to en-sure citizens of their safety. Everything is done to find out whether there is a health risk to living in the IJmond. In the meantime, the permit of the steel industry is strictly enforced.
3.2.5 Framing analysis
Chapter 6 answers the third sub-question, which I formulated as: “How do changes in risk per-ceptions impact the suspension of risks within this case?” It aims at understanding and deepen-ing the insight in the process of actively constructdeepen-ing trust within my case as well as in theoret-ical terms. I pursue this goal by probing into the way in which the discussions regarding risk and trust are conducted. To achieve this goal, 14 in-depth interviews were conducted with actors from the local media (2), the local government (1), regional civil servants (1), a corporate rep-resentative (1), employees (4), local reprep-resentatives (3) and local protest organizations (2).
All interviews, except for the interview with the corporate representative with whom I spoke by telephone, were face-to-face, audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. The interviews were semi-structured, to be able to relate the argumentation of actors in the eventual analysis of the gathered data. My encounters with respondents can be characterized as so-called ‘kitchen table discussions’, which is an expression of Dutch origin. I namely visited the respondents in their homes or in a coffee shop nearby, to question their feelings, thoughts and behaviour related to my project.
Interviewees are selected in the extension of the four risk frames as set out in the previous section, in an attempt to clarify the risk perceptions in these frames and grasp the process of suspension. It turned out that four main actor groups were active within my case: residents of the IJmond, the Provincial Executive, the management of Tata Steel and the media. The view of the group of citizens was not always unambiguous. However, there appeared to be a generally shared sentiment which I tried to grasp in the risk frames above. The media does not have its own risk frame. Although sometimes subjectively reporting events within the case, journalists do not actively construct trust in Tata Steel. Therefore, their role is denoted as external.
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4. The existence of Tata Steel within the IJmond-region
4.1 Introduction
As became clear from the previous chapters, a case study of Tata Steel is at the basis of this thesis. The aim is to enhance the understanding of the way in which changing risk perceptions relate to the process of actively constructing trust. However, prior to a clarification of this rela-tion, the role of risk and trust in the case of Tata Steel have to be considered in itself. Therefore, this chapter elaborates on the role of risk perceptions and the process of trust within and around Tata Steel. I probe into the question: “What is the role of risk and trust in the case of Tata Steel and its co-existence with the IJmond-region?”
Building on the introduction, I will demonstrate how the steel mill succeeded in establish-ing a paternalist order within which the awareness of risk was latent. However, due to the oc-currence of graphite rains, risk became manifest and trust is to be actively constructed. To come to this answer, the chapter is divided in three sections. Firstly, a genealogy the existence of Tata Steel within the IJmond-region will be set out, to be able to make sense of the social relations that this steel firm entails. Guided by scientific literature, these relations are interpreted in the-oretical terms in the second section. Finally, the third section includes a preliminary conclusion in which the sub-question is answered, followed by a preface to the next chapter.
4.2 Empirical genealogy of the case
Tata Steel is a steel factory located in a region called the IJmond. It has been around for more than a hundred years. The very first days of the firm were in August 1917, when the establish-ment committee of the Royal Dutch Blast Furnaces called upon the wealthy to invest in the creation of a Dutch steel firm near the North-Western coast in IJmuiden (Dankers & Verheul 2018a: 25). The entire manufacturing process from ore to steel would be integrated in the fac-tory with the aim of contributing to a national economy that would be less dependent upon foreign manufacturers (ibid.). Due to economic misfortune in its initial existence, this vision would ironically enough only be accomplished during the German occupation of the Second World War (idem: 53).
The post-war period can be characterized by a continuous alternation between economic prosperity and financial crises. For the sake of its stability, the company constantly reinvented itself in a struggle for survival through takeovers and reorganizations, sometimes with the aid of the Dutch government that thereby confirmed the importance of the Blast Furnaces for the Dutch economy. Despite this tumultuous appearance, the steel mill succeeded in establishing a
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steady growth and became a European steel giant, producing huge amounts of high-quality steel. In addition to attaining this international status, the company nested itself regionally as well through the build-up of a generous package of social facilities. (idem: 73)
Corporate executives namely knew that the establishment of chemistry between its workers was a prior condition for the continuity of the production processes within the manufactory (idem: 46-50). That is why this increase in productivity was not solely limited to the revenues of steel production. Driven by the heavy work and internal interdependency of production pro-cesses, the factory invested in the establishment of a strong sense of community. The acknowl-edgement of the importance of such a team spirit was actually nothing new: an economic direc-tor of the Royal Dutch Blast Furnaces in its early days, Dolph Kessler, already stated that the steel firm had to be one step ahead of the legislator in the social field at all times (Van Elteren 1986: 64).
This slogan was not exclusively attributed to factory workers: inhabitants of adjacent areas could also count on generous care from the steel company. Next to providing an enormous amount of job opportunities, the steel company invested in the community by initiating educa-tion, housing, care, pensions, gifts and sponsorships (Dankers & Verheul 2018a: 46-50). Be-sides that, it organized a yearly returning chess tournament, which in the meantime has become world famous (Tata Steel Chess 2019). Irrespective of what the social investments concerned, the steel mill was regarded as guardian of the community in a manner similar to corporations such as Phillips in Eindhoven and Bayer in Leverkusen (Stoop 1992: 39-40). Consequently, the steel industry succeeded in acquiring a sense of social belonging among the inhabitants of the IJmond-region by domestically leading the way in social care for its employees and neighbour-ing community (Dankers & Verheul 2018a: 46-50).
Over the years these facilities were constrained by reason of societal developments such as technological progress and economic decline. The social arrangements lost their functionality due to the construction and dismantling of the public welfare state and economic and financial crises in and outside of the company (Stoop 1992: 290-292). This restriction of social arrange-ments was accompanied by a decline in the number of people working at the company (Bouwens 2018b: 209-214). Thereby, Tata Steel over the years lost a part of its economic and social importance in the region.
Nevertheless, even after the most recent takeover by Tata Steel Group in 2007, a sense of community is maintained since it is considered to be useful (Bouwens 2018b: 219). Housing of employees is for example no longer perceived as a corporate responsibility, whereas there is an undiminished investment in the business school (Noordhollands Dagblad 2019). In other words,
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Tata Steel preserved its international status with respect to its steel productivity. Locally, they have acknowledged their social responsibility up to the present day, being the most important employer in the region with a deeply rooted relation with the IJmond.
Even so, their activities got increasingly contested starting from the Summer of 2018. In the end of 2014 Tata Steel namely submitted an application to conduct a new production method for remnants of steel production for which slag processing company Harsco Metals bears re-sponsibility (Harsco Metals Holland BV 2014: 2-5). Instead of loading residual pig iron on train wagons to cool it down before continuing processing, Harsco would pour the slag directly into pans while it is still in a hot and liquid state. This new method would only bring advantages: whilst precluding any form of environmental nuisance, more iron could be extracted by using less pans. Although Harsco did not yet have the permit, the company already started conducting this new method almost immediately after their application (Kreling & Schoorl 2019).
Except for complaints regarding plumes of smoke and dust, which were not out of the ordinary in the IJmond, there did not appear to be any significant change of nuisance for the neighbouring municipality Wijk aan Zee (Oosterlee et al. 2016: 2-4). However, on top of the new processing method, the composition of the raw materials used in the production process changed (Houtekamer & Kooiman 2018). As a result, the emissions became increasingly per-ceptible in December 2016: next to an increasing smell in the village, sticky and shimmering black particles descended over the living environment (Vuijk 2017). Therefore, an appeal and enforcement request from the village council followed immediately after Harsco is given offi-cial permission for its new processing method (Dorpsraad Wijk aan Zee 2016: 10). Both re-quests were dismissed by the Environment Service and the Provincial Executive of North Hol-land resulting in a withdrawal from further formal requests by the village council (Vuijk 2018a). Harsco and Tata could thus go ahead in the absence of formal intervention.
Taking the above into consideration, the Dutch steel mill succeeded in nesting itself inter-nationally as well as in the region. Thereby, Tata Steel attained an unquestioned faith in its comings and goings, since it established itself as being a socially responsible actor. The occur-rence of graphite rains marks the beginning of an ongoing contestation over dust explosions in Wijk aan Zee and appears to impede the intangibility of the steel industry in the IJmond. As will be clarified in the next chapter, this marks the beginning of the case I want to study, because residents start to rethink the risks of living next to the industry and, subsequently, reconstruct their trust in Tata Steel. To understand the sudden change in the support for a socially embedded manufactory, it makes sense to probe into theory that explains why corporations would set up such a far-reaching social equipment in the first place.
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4.3 Theoretical classification
According to Sjef Stoop (1992), who studied the social politics of voluminous manufactories, corporative social services are always wrapped up in stories that legitimize the existence and position of companies (idem: 14-16). Therein it is not about whether such an approach is sin-cere, what matters is that there is “a convenient consistency between their humanitarian values and their entrepreneurial interests” (Watson 1977: 26). A representative of the village council Wijk aan Zee states that Hans van den Berg, the site manager of Tata Steel, speaks in this context about a ‘license to operate’: “Tata knows: we have to stand up for society to ensure that we do not incur any damage to our image, otherwise we will lose our license to operate” (Re-spondent 5).
One of these legitimizing stories can be found in the literature regarding ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’. Various authors have attempted to define CSR, but all definitions can be clas-sified within a certain range (Dahlsrud 2008: 5-6). This range is adequately grasped in the def-inition of this concept presented in the work of Holme and Watts (2000). They define CSR as being “the commitment of business to contribute to sustainable economic development, work-ing with employees, their families, the local community and society at large to improve their quality of life” (ibid.). In retrospect, previous findings from authors such as Solecki (1996) and Steinberg (2000) interfere in this broader discussion. They conceptualize the same phenomenon as being ‘paternalism’. It can be defined as the formation of a familial compact in which gen-erous care of a company is provided in exchange for loyalty and a reliable work ethic (Solecki 1996: 5-7).
In this thesis I utilize paternalism to make sense of the comings and goings in and around Tata Steel. By using this term instead of Corporate Social Responsibility, it may seem as if the motives of a corporate actor to design social arrangements are primarily self-interested in their nature. Still, I embrace this conceptualization, since it is irrelevant for my argument whether the reason of company to establish an extensive package of social services is functional, struc-tural or entirely out of goodwill. The point I want to make here is namely that paternalism is used as a management strategy of corporations to create a discourse in which support for their manner of acting is gathered from inside out.
Through the creation of job opportunities, welfare and related contributions to the well-being of employees and neighbouring residents, companies create a dependency relationship with its neighbouring community and workforce (Jovanović 2018: 498-499). However, this dependency goes beyond purely economic ties, since companies invest in every possibility to
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cope with the pains and pleasures of its surrounding community and project itself as a caring and benevolent problem solver (Solecki 1996: 13-16). As encountered in the previous section, this is visible within Tata Steel as well. To give an example: the steel mill has wielded a variety of generous amenities regarding care for occupationally disabled or widowed people (Stoop 1992: 173-176).
Corporations use paternalistic management to create a social imaginary in which a unique regional discourse exists through which reality is understood (Steinberg 2000: 246-248). It stems from the necessity and desire to control the labour market as well as the production pro-cess (Stoop 1992: 35). By investing beyond purely economic domains, corporate actors are able to establish a discursive transformation in a community: investments of the entrepreneur on the one hand and subscription of the community on the other result in a continuous affirmation of the paternalistic order (Steinberg 2000: 255-256). Any expression of negative framing regard-ing for example industrial pollution is silenced in such a discourse (Deng & Yang 2013: 322-323).
Consequently, risk is not an issue in the established order. As Phillimore and Bell articu-late: “Trust, familiarity, loyalty and security were not alternatives to talking about risk but pro-vided the cognitive frame within which people chose to talk about it. […] Such a climate of opinion […] has inevitable consequences for the way in which questions of industrial pollution and risk are addressed.” (2005: 317-318). In other words, paternalistic management is an in-vestment strategy through which corporations establish a regional discourse. Within this dis-course, involved actors do not think of risk caused by the company, since their understanding of reality does not associate pollution with insecurity or risk. Edelstein exquisitely captures this insight by narrating: “I was born in the steel town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, where the bil-lowing smokestacks and flashes of fire from the blast furnaces were viewed as signs of pros-perity, not sources of pollution.” (1988: 17).
Tata Steel generated a similar paternalistic order through its increasing importance in the post-war period. The dominant discourse can be characterized by a quote of one of the factory workers, who states: “The Tata family is a close-knit family, we are there for each other for better or worse. In times of adversity, you help each other, you stand in for each other. We don’t worry about our health. Maybe because we are so close and see what is done to minimize the damage. We have a broader vision. People from outside the factory only see the misery.” (De Ruijter 2019). The discourse established by Tata Steel thus seamlessly fits the theory of Phillimore and Bell (2005). People choose to talk about the familial character of the industry, instead of the interpreting the pollution as being a risk.
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Recalling aforementioned theory regarding the imaginative practices through which people make risk present or absent (Bickerstaff & Simmons 2009: 865-866), the paternalistic discourse established by Tata Steel can be understood as a social imaginary that enables citizens to make risk absent. As explained by Aven (2012: 34-36), this implies that there is no need to trust. Following the same logic, risk was made present as the graphite rains increasingly started to cause nuisance in the summer of 2018. More and more residents casted doubts over their health, which indicates that people indeed imagined a risk in the graphite rains, for which they blame Tata Steel. Consequently, residents do need to trust and start to actively construct it.
Since citizenry questions regarding their health and the environment remain unanswered pending long-term investigations, distrust in proceedings occurs (Houtekamer & Kooiman 2018). Tata Steel responded conform their paternalistic management strategy with the initiation of various investigations, information evenings and even guided tours (Tata Steel 2019a). Yet, these measures failed to cope with residential distrust as the measures ignored residential doubts concerning the impact of the nuisance on their health and the environment. As a consequence, a growing number of politicians and journalists attempting to reduce residential distrust inter-vened in the situation (Van Belkom 2019; Bos 2018; De Groot 2018; Van Heerde 2018; Jellema 2018; Pels 2018; Tata Steel 2019b).
In other words, the graphite rains provoked residents to rethink the conditions of their health and the environment in the IJmond. A risk that was in fact always physically close is made present through the black particles on their windowsills. A villager at one of the initiated information evenings shouts for example: “The Municipal Health Service advices to vacuum our lawn and close our windows, but still states that it [dust rain] can’t do any harm?” (Hou-tekamer & Kooiman 2018). The promises of both Tata Steel and the Provincial Executive to reduce graphite nuisance do no longer resonate in the perspective of the villagers: their worries suddenly go beyond this visible nuisance and regard broader issues of health and the environ-ment (Respondent 1).
This demonstrates what Epstein calls ‘impure science’: offering new information is no longer a resolution for contestation between actors, since provided information is increasingly contested (1996). Instead, it is about gaining credibility for the information that is provided. The credibility of information is constructed accordingly in new residential fictions of reality (Möllering 2006: 112-115). That is where views on the problem start to discern. A journalist responsible for this subject on behalf of a regional newspaper states: “Everyone agrees upon the fact that there is nuisance and that this nuisance is annoying, but people differ in their con-victions of how this issue should be dealt with.” (Respondent 1). The voiced concerns vary
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from a still undiminished trust in Tata Steel as being capable of resolving the problem, to people who raise questions about the survival of the company in contemporary society.
4.4 In summary
All in all, this chapter demonstrated that risk has not always been an issue in the IJmond. Since reality was understood through the paternalist discourse established by the steel mill through far-reaching social investments, residents did not associate the industry with danger or insecu-rity. However, there appeared to be limits to the paternal discourse established by Tata Steel. The visibility of the nuisance in the shape of graphite provoked involved actors to rethink risk, which is why trust needs to be actively constructed. Thereby, this chapter preludes the core of chapter 5 and chapter 6, since fictions of reality are reconfigured in response to the observation of the first graphite rain. Residents rethink their perception of risk and decide whether they trust Tata Steel or not. In the next chapter, I probe into the way in which these risk perceptions changed.
5. Changing risk perceptions: the manifestation of risk
5.1 Introduction
In this chapter, the interactions between residents, governmental and corporate actors before and in the aftermath of the first reported graphite rain are analysed. The aim thereof is to dis-cover the way in which risk perceptions of actors encountering graphite rains from Tata Steel transformed. Therefore, this chapter starts with a first media analysis of news articles published to demonstrate that discussions regarding nuisance caused by Tata Steel emerged through the first graphite rain. The results are visualized in the figure 1 and figure 2 on the next page, fol-lowed by an interpretation in the subsequent section.
Thereafter, I associate these discussions with risk perceptions by a second media analysis in which the content of the news articles is investigated. Since these analyses lack insight in the way in which actors interact, and their way of arguing is at the core of the imaginative practices through which risk is made present or absent, the final section probes into these interactions guided by data gathered from interviews with involved actors. Thereby, I formulate an aswer to the sub-question: “To which extend and how did risk perceptions change within this case ever since the occurrence of graphite rains?”
31 Figure 1: Sum of published articles per year
Note: sum of published news articles on Y-axis, time in months on X-axis
Figure 2: Elaborated sum of published articles per month
Note: sum of published news articles on Y-axis, time in months on X-axis 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
National Regional Total
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
