The case study to be discussed in the present essay is the story about the Geelong power station that failed to be built by the AES Power-One company because of the strong resistance and joint action of the population resulting in banning the construction. The present event has many parallels with the study of Becks about the wealth and risk distribution – the story seems highly resembling what Becks used to state about the modernization processes taking place in the society and being accompanied with greater risks for the society that will soon recognize them.
Becks argues that risks are inevitable, they accompany the accumulation of wealth, so the secret of success of the campaign to fight the risk realized by ‘lay people’ is concealed in the ability of these ‘lay people’ to communicate their knowledge about the risk to the rest of the society and to arouse the incentive to act:
The protestors and proponents disputed the suitability and currency of the power station’s proposed technology including the height of exhaust stacks and its operating technology. They argued that the smokestacks would cause health problems and that the operating technology was outmoded and inefficient (Ethical Communication and Citizenship: 9).
It is clear that the article tells about a risk society – the risks have already been widely recognized and have acquired the scope of the global threat. Pollution is a mass phenomenon that did not overlook any of the world’s regions; for this reason, the issues of pollution and negative influence brought by the station’s emissions have become a grave problem for the local population. However, the risk is not easy to combat because the branches of power pursue different policies: ones want to reduce the threat of pollution, others want to accumulate wealth, as is seen in the example with the Major of the District Strecko Kontelj and the Electrical Trades Union juxtaposed with the Darren Aitken and Simone Marjanovic who were still for the construction.
How is it possible to estimate a potential risk emerging in another place or time, or as an unintended by-product of an attempt to alleviate some harm? In this environment, the institutions that measure risk and compensate for injustice are thrown into disarray (Ethical Communication and Citizenship: 4).
In the present context, seeing the severe opposition of the local population to the construction of the power station the words of Becks about the necessity of the public response to be reflexive becomes relevant:
This sort of reflexivity, for Beck, is not to be abstractly located in some sort of hypothetical ideal speech situation. It is already becoming operative in the critique of science developing not just in the Green movement, but in the broad masses of the lay public (Ethical Communication and Citizenship: 4).
In the present case study, the society appeared to be more united than before in the common aim to achieve success in forbidding the construction of the station. They were not even stopped by the corrupted explanations of the station’s activity being not harmful and the false promises not to violate the breach of permitted emissions and not to cause pollution that way. The agreement showed the clear realization of the threat that existed in the society, showing it’s being a ‘post-scarcity one – the phenomenon deals with the risk overwhelming the necessity. The community of Geelong needed electricity, thus they experienced a scarcity of resources. Judging from that point, one may call this society a scarce one. However, the citizens have managed to refuse from having electricity for the sake of having an ecologically clean area and being not subdued to long-lasting effects from the station’s emissions. Hence one may conclude that in the present case study a clear example of risk society is considered.
Here one should underline the role of citizens’ initiative groups – without their communication of the problem to the wide public and without attracting people’s attention to the issue the station’s construction would hardly have been canceled:
In the risk society, it is predicted that CAGs will play an increasingly important role in shaping political and social agendas. The intersection of risk society the vast technical global information changes will see public communication as essential to that role (Ethical Communication and Citizenship: 5).
Considering the situation that happened to the construction company carefully, one may see that the issue of bad PR played a bad joke on the venture to build the station – the company did not manage to communicate its initial goals, its security measures, and the limits of emissions that had stipulated to the common public, thus causing much disambiguation and social resistance. On the other hand, the power industry has never been pure and producing no emissions, which is known to everyone. For this reason, the residents have managed to reveal the truth and communicate the message for saving the environment to the rest of the population, thus causing an active response. The company failed to pursue its initiative in the region of Geelong:
A company with a dodgy reputation and the whiff of misconduct creates a challenge to the public consent to host the organization. The long-term consequences create an added vulnerability for organizations (Ethical Communication and Citizenship: 9).
Drawing up a conclusion, it is necessary to admit that the key role in the present situation belonged to the dissemination of knowledge – only under the condition of arranging the communication of all relevant data to the public the initiative groups could achieve success in the achievement of their goals.
Bibliography
Ethical Communication and Citizenship. Deakin Univesity, pp.3-10.