Dis-Ag-reement: the construction and negotiation of risk in the Swedish controversy over antibacterial silver
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2015

What constitutes a potentially hazardous object is often debated. This article analyses the polemic construction and negotiation of risk in the Swedish controversy over the use of antibacterial silver in health care and consumer products. This debate engages the media, government agencies, parliament and government, non-governmental organizations and companies. Texts and websites from these actors were studied using content analysis. Antibacterial silver is construed by some actors as a risk object with harmful effects on a series of objects at risk: the environment, public health, organisms and sewage treatment. In contrast, other actors deny that antibacterial silver is a risk object, instead construing it as mitigating risk. In such a schema, antibacterial silver is conceived of as managing the risk objects of bacteria and micro-organisms, in turn managing the risk objects of infection, bad smell and washing, and in turn helping the environment and public health (objects at risk). The structure of the debate suggests two basic modes of risk communication. First, antibacterial silver is construed as a risk object, endangering a variety of objects at risk, such as organisms, public health, the environment and sewage treatment. Second, this association between antibacterial silver and objects at risk is obstructed, by denying that antibacterial silver is a risk object or by associating silver with the benefit of mitigating risk.

risk communication

antibacterial silver

controversy

relational theory of risk

Författare

Max Boholm

Göteborgs universitet

Rickard Arvidsson

Chalmers, Energi och miljö, Environmental Systems Analysis

Åsa Boholm

Göteborgs universitet

Hervé Corvellec

Lunds universitet

Sverker Molander

Chalmers, Energi och miljö, Environmental Systems Analysis

Journal of Risk Research

1366-9877 (ISSN) 1466-4461 (eISSN)

Vol. 18 1 93-110

Drivkrafter

Hållbar utveckling

Ämneskategorier

Filosofi

Tvärvetenskapliga studier

Annan naturresursteknik

Teknikhistoria

Nanoteknik

DOI

10.1080/13669877.2013.879492

Mer information

Senast uppdaterat

2018-03-02