2026-09-21T10:58:17Z https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/98208 2023-07-11 col_2142_14851 col_2142_5131 com_2142_14849 com_2142_8903 com_2142_5130

Environmental health Copyright 2017 Laura Atkins Jung, Moon-Kie Jung, Moon-Kie Zerai, Assata Cacho, Lisa M. Denzin, Norman K. Atkins, Laura Beth 2017-09-29T16:38:59Z 2017-09-29T16:38:59Z 2019-09-30T09:15:32Z 2022-02-12T10:15:38Z 2017-04-21 2017-08 This dissertation provides an ethnographic account of the experiences of residents living within the cancer cluster town of Clyde, Ohio, where over 50 children have been diagnosed with or have died of cancers of the brain and central nervous system since the mid-1990s. My entry into the field coincided with the filing of a lawsuit against the town’s largest employer, a Whirlpool Corporation plant, after the discovery of nine feet of toxic PCB sludge at a former community recreational park built by the company. Drawing on in-depth interviews, archival documents, and government reports, I examine systems of power at work within the community that hamper a collective sense of community subpolitics. Using a grounded theoretical approach to analysis informed by risk theory, I discovered that community-level responses to risk echo national logics that promote the concepts of deterrence and avoidance of harm as matters of individual preventive choice. Within a cultural context where efforts towards pinpointing the toxins responsible for the elevated cancer rates in Clyde have failed and there exists an imperative for self-protection that is impossible to achieve, residents experience serious psychosocial and practical conflicts as they adapt to the impact of cancer on their families. Furthermore, although risk and awareness of risk have penetrated the dialog of everyday life, townspeople have largely adapted to risk as a way of life rather than working to eliminate it. Examples of this are seen in the modification of residents’ consumer and lifestyle choices, and the participation in an evolving system of support from the community’s schools, businesses, and churches. I offer a theoretical framework for understanding the process through which the community changed to accommodate risk rather than to substantially alter it. This research bridges sociology and public health, and responds to a long-standing call to incorporate social theory into social epidemiological studies. It advances both the understanding of the ways in which residents are influenced by interactions with the State, as well as the occurrence of collective community inaction in cases of environmental contamination. Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2019-08-01 The student, Laura Atkins, accepted the attached license on 2017-04-19 at 08:43. The student, Laura Atkins, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2017-04-19 at 09:25. This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2017-04-21 at 10:03. DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #10884 on 2017-09-29 at 11:13:00 Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-29T16:38:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 ATKINS-DISSERTATION-2017.pdf: 2154040 bytes, checksum: 32a31e36b97ed9fc92fcd4c1b54640be (MD5) LICENSE.txt: 4209 bytes, checksum: 522db3bd946858ef990a4b4027414570 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-04-21 Embargo set by: Colleen Fallaw for item 103355 Lift date: 2019-09-29T16:39:52Z Reason: Author requested closed access (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD system Embargo set by: Colleen Fallaw for item 103355 Lift date: 2019-09-29T17:52:45Z Reason: Author requested closed access (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD system Limited Restriction Lifted for Item 103355 on 2019-09-30T09:15:32Z. U of I Only Restriction set for Item 103355 on 2020-02-12T16:01:19Z with date 2022-02-12 by fschaef2@illinois.edu. U of I Only Restriction set for Item 103355 on 2020-02-12T16:01:22Z with date 2022-02-12 by fschaef2@illinois.edu. U of I Only Restriction Lifted for Item 103355 on 2022-02-12T10:15:38Z. application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/2142/98208 en Collective action Risk perception Adaptable lives: agency and accountability in a cancer cluster town text text Sociology Sociology University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Dissertation Ph.D.