ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights tensions that have arisen at the intersection of two very different visions of redevelopment. It considers how risk management by authorities has contributed to these tensions and examines the psychosocial consequences of these conflicts. The lack of participatory decision-making creates social divisions, because the priority that the government places on the economy diverges from the symbolic and psychological needs of affected residents. This analysis is based on an ethnographic study requested by the local and regional public health authorities and conducted between January, 2014, and April, 2015, in Lac-Mégantic. The chapter provides an in-depth understanding of a situation unique to Québec, the oil industry's ongoing North American expansion. The chapter also draws on and contributes to the critical social science literature on disasters and the cultural construction of risk, particularly as discussions of these intertwined concepts relate to heated debate over a potential bypass railway in Lac-Mégantic.
