Did Water Kill the Cows?: The Distribution and Democratisation of Risk, Responsibility and Liability in a Dutch Agricultural Controversy on Water Pollution and Cattle Sickness

Table of Contents......Page 6
Acknowledgments......Page 10
1. Introduction......Page 12
1.1 How to deal with invisible and boundary crossing problems?......Page 13
1.2 The two controversies......Page 16
1.3 How to study the distribution of risk and responsibility?......Page 19
2. How to blame a farmer? Constructed risk in the agricultural arena......Page 22
2.1 Theoretical intermezzo......Page 23
2.2 The historical context of Dutch farming......Page 28
2.3 Different farming strategies and the interpretative flexibility of the water pollution......Page 37
2.4 Interpretative flexibility of water pollution: different solutions......Page 51
2.5 Different farming strategies: different expertises......Page 66
3. How to blame a polder? Obdurate risk in the water management arena......Page 70
3.1 Theoretical intermezzo......Page 71
3.2 The Beemster polder......Page 75
3.3 Contextualising the Beemster polder......Page 88
3.4 Risky contextualisation......Page 94
3.5 The need for change versus the obduracy of the polder......Page 97
3.6 Contextualisation and responsibility......Page 104
4. How to blame a government? Distributing responsibility in the political arena......Page 106
4.1 Theoretical intermezzo......Page 107
4.2 The construction of relevancy......Page 116
4.3 The distribution of responsibility......Page 145
4.4 The democratisation of expertise......Page 150
5. Who to blame? Attributing responsibility in the judicial arena......Page 156
5.1 Theoretical intermezzo......Page 158
5.2 Boundary work in court: constructing evidence......Page 167
5.3 Credibility contests in court: constructing expertise......Page 175
5.4 Ownership in court: distributing responsibility in court......Page 179
5.5 The court as knowledge machines: the construction of law-science hybrids in court......Page 183
5.6 New risks, science and the law......Page 192
6. Conclusion. How to democratise the distribution of risks, responsibility and liability......Page 198
6.1 A sketch of the outcomes of the two controversies in the different arena\'s they travelled through......Page 199
6.2 Social learning in risk controversies......Page 204
6.3 Do risks controversies reflect the need for more participatory democratic decisionmaking processes?......Page 209
6.4 My role as an STS researcher in the controversies......Page 214
Bibliography......Page 218
Glossary......Page 240
List of interviewees......Page 244
Dutch Summary......Page 248
Curriculum Vitae......Page 258