This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Dew, K. Articles by Lloyd, M. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Accounting for the ICI fire: partial connections between lay and expert knowledge

Department of Sociology and Social Policy Victoria University of Wellington

Mike Lloyd

Department of Sociology and Social Policy Victoria University of Wellington

This note presents a case study of the 1984 ICI chemical fire—a major New Zealand occupational health and safety incident. Details are presented of various health and illness disputations that arose after the fire and the way these tended to coalesce into lay and expert factions. Not wishing to treat lay/expert as a fixed dichotomy, we use the term 'partial connections' to emphasise that lay or expert knowledge is a socially accomplished and precarious element of actor-networks. Nevertheless, once these elements are made more durable, 'harder' social outcomes result, and in the case of the ICI fire the 'hard' facts tended to disfavour the lay actors and their knowledge.

Journal of Sociology, Vol. 33, No. 3, 394-402 (1997)
DOI: 10.1177/144078339703300308


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?