ABSTRACT
Much risk research is concerned with redefining risk and its perceptions. The ‘technicization’ of risk analysis, and its consequent distance from popular perceptions of danger and safety, are familiar phenomena in the arguments about the relativity of defining risks in situations of conflict over large-scale infrastructure or biotechnologies. Minor discomforts have, perhaps understandably, not received so much attention in the debate; but the risks of changing what might appear to be small details in the environment can lead to major conflicts in the lives of those involved and give rise to considerable discomfort and unhappiness. This chapter examines the furore surrounding the siting of a factory on a semi-industrial site, and anatomizes the debate over the potential environmental consequences.
