A Fair Take on Local Opposition

Local opposition to risky but collectively-beneficial facilities has reduced the levels of necessary services (e.g., hazardous waste treatment facilities; Portney, 1984) and resulted in the inequitable placement of risky facilities such that they are disproportionately located in poor and/or minority neighborhoods (e.g., Austin & Schill, 1991). In this paper, I explore the motivations underpinning local opposition to risky facilities. Specifically, I examine whether residents knowingly attempt to offload risks onto others or whether common judgmental biases subtly affect evaluations of such facilities. I leverage newer work on local opposition to risky facilities (e.g., Wolsink, 2007a) by using fairness as a lens through which to investigate local opposition and test whether fairness judgments or risk perceptions are the most appropriate theoretical foundation for the investigation of local opposition.