ABSTRACT
History may provide a sense of rootedness, belonging, and commitment to community members. In turn, sharing history creates an opportunity to develop a dialogue that establishes and justifies beliefs, formulates ideas about community identity, and provides a framework for making decisions about what activities produce public health risks. Many environmental policies require the consideration of potential impacts to historical resources. In order to understand the decision-making atmosphere of the communities under study, one must examine how the companies deemed responsible for generating the environmental risks of concern became community entities. Community members tend to perceive the pollution associated with Millersburg and Albany industries as both a manageable component of their community identity and a necessary one for economic growth. Differences in how community members and environmental regulators frame ‘the community’ may increase the likelihood that symbolic meanings held by community members, but not fully understood by environmental regulators, will contribute to contentious decision-making.
