Narrative Research and Living with Risk: Methodological Reflections

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Narrative Research and Living with Risk
Methodological Reflections

• Karen Henwood, Karen Parkhill, Nick Pidgeon,
  Peter Simmons Dan Venables
• School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University
• School of Psychology, Cardiff University
• School of Environmental Science, UEA

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Overview of talk

• Previous methodological reflections of
  qualitative ( narrative) interviewing
• Risk narrative the case for linking the two
• Overview of our project
• Introducing our narrative elicitation strategy
• Aims questions types
• Fieldwork sites
• Reflections findings from our project
  specifically relating to how the narrative
  strategy we used worked

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Methodological work on qualitative interviewing
(e.g. Uwe Flick)

• alleged Inducing narratives can stimulate a more
  natural discourse exchange echoing everyday
  conversations
• allows interviewees to reveal more about their
  social worlds (as feel more comfortable)
• allows more in-depth exploration of narrated
  meanings
• allows narrative scepticism (deficit model of
  peoples subjective views) to be combated
• can be used in conjunction with focused
  questions, to avoid the use of bland assessments

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Risk narrative the case for linking the two

• How to make intractable issues risk controversy
  - researchable?
• Risk vulnerable/marginal groups known problem
  of narrow choice of methods (e.g. 1980s HIV
  study)
• Risk narrative interviewing active,
  interpretive process of producing narratives can
  make everyday lived realities intelligable
  (Czarniawska)
• Biographical narratives can address
  particularities, inconsistencies ambiguities of
  narrated meanings (Hollway Jefferson)
• Risk the need to avoid grand theorising the
  significance of risk in everyday life (Tulloch
  Lupton risk biographies)
• Risk constructed preferences how to study
  what people take into account in arriving at
  judgements? (Satterfield)

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Our project Socio-technical risk (nuclear
power), decisions and values a narrative
approach
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The development of our narrative approach

• Our Aims
• Elicit narratives
• to embed risk problems in contextually,
  emotively, and morally rich stories (Satterfield)
  
• facilitate the study of meaning,
  interpretation, the local context (esp. the
  role of identity, place values)
• Introduce biographical/life story element
• to include how people perceive/represent/respond
  to risk over the changing time place
  coordinates of their lives (Tulloch Lupton)
  aka risk awareness/subjectivity/reflexivity
• To address ambiguities of narrated meanings
  (Hollway and Jefferson)
• To be methodologically reflexive
• There is a strong assumption that narrative
  methods may not apply to all topics.

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Interview strategy 3 broad types of questions

• Type 1 Narrative
• Daily experiences and feelings about living near
  to Bradwell power station?
• Any difference it makes in your lives ?
• And covering risk biography questions e.g.
• did you know about the plant before you moved
  here?
• can you tell me what you remember about the
  building of the power plant?

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Interview strategy broad types of questions
continued

• Type 2 Biographical/Life Journey/Choices
  Narrative (local context)
• I.e. Thoughts and feelings about living in the
  area generally
• how has your life changed over time (and in what
  ways)?
• how does living here compare with other places
  you have lived?
• Denise York We've rather digressed from power
  stations.
• R It's interesting too. The point of the
  research in a way is what exactly people are
  interested in
• DENISE YORK Why we are living in this neck of
  the woods.
• R Well, what are the important things, you
  know the power station is not the only thing in
  the village so we're interested in things like
  the WI because that is important to people.
• (Denise York, Bradwell)
• Type 3 Focused Questions
• Specific questions about possibly controversial
  issues raised by this form of energy generation
  in the locality, nationally and (to a lesser
  extent) globally
• - e.g. new build, incineration, climate change,
  health impacts

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Introducing Our Fieldwork Sites
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(No Transcript)
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Oldbury Power Station, South Gloucestershire
Bradwell Power Station, Essex
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Bradwell Village
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Bradwell The Tourist Site
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St Peter-on-the-Wall Chapel (No theyve made a
lot of arguments about the oldest, its the
oldest Christian chapel up until the 1930s it
was a cow shed!)
Essex Marshes
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Oldbury-on-Severn Village
Thornbury
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Thornbury Park Looking to Oldbury
View from Sedbury/Chepstow
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How Our Interview Strategy Worked Some
Reflections
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Narrative data how it appeared in the interviews

• Prosaic discourse (Polkinghorne, 1995)
• More interested in those narratives that are
  emplotted narratives (Polkinghorne, 1995), i.e.
  In a story form (context, plot etc)
• Few holistic, life story narratives (some
  exceptions question of direct impact operation
  of power station in account of working/family
  life)
• Significant, fragmentary narratives
• Episodes (intersection of biographical risk
  concerns disruption to life story e.g.
  contamination scares/cancer)
• Vignettes (open beginning/ending with a
  foreword/summation, thus the vignette is an
  illustration story a presentation of a point
  self enclosed - no introduction or commentary,
  the storys moral is held within)
• Biographies of a life journey (e.g. What led them
  to moving to the area/doing the job they do)

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Intersection of biography and risk concern

• Actually I seem more concerned about it when,
  its that concept of perceiving real risk because
  I dont, Im a member of the sailing club,
  although I dont have a lot of time for real
  sailing, but the first time somebody took me out
  sailing on the river, now thats quite a
  dangerous place to sail with a forty foot tide,
  um, ten knot tide so with the rise and fall its
  ten knot up and down, you can get swept away if
  youre not careful but being out there on the
  water, the water being splashed on you and then
  theres the power station pumping away and it
  makes you think oh I wonder how, whats in the
  water? but until I was out there getting
  splashed by the water going past Id never given
  that a second thought. Theres loads, theres
  loads of people that go sailing there every week
  and theres no big incidence of cancer in
  Thornbury sailing club, youd probably pick up
  something a lot more biologically active from the
  river, another group thats out, its a much
  cleaner place. So everywhere you turn there are
  risks.
• (Harrison Donaldson, Oldbury)

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Biography and Risk Concern Intersection E.g. 2

• Ryan Kirk Um, yeah I do see it all changing I
  think it has changed since Ive been here. At
  first I didnt feel any risk but I got attacked a
  while ago by a group of young thugs who were
  thinking that theyre running the streets or
  whatever and they just, they were quite
  aggressive, I mean there was this gang around me,
  I didnt know any of them, and Id only lived
  here for a couple of months so I didnt really
  know what was going on, um, and there was about
  fifteen or twenty of these people and as soon as
  I raised my head I got a fist in it and I got
  kicked and beaten quite a lot. I did report it to
  the police and I managed to get fifty pound out
  of it but it didnt really make me feel any safer
  on the streets and that does, I do worry about
  that quite a lot, when Im going out at weekend
  or whatever, being on the streets, I do worry
  about those people being out there
• Interviewer Is that just in Thornbury then?
• Ryan Kirk Yeah, well in Bristol as well I
  guess but I dont really go out in Bristol that
  often, but yeah I do worry about what could
  happen at late night or whatever, even in broad
  daylight when it happened to me it was in the
  middle of the day, I mean I didnt know it was
  going to happen so, but I do, I worry about
  anyone else I know really that will go out as
  well, I mean anything could happen anytime
• I.e. There are more immediate personal threats
  than the power station

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Biography and Risk Concern Intersection E.g.3

• Toby Bundock omitted foreword Now when we
  were there, when I was there as a young man, we
  used to smash it about and it would be dust and
  throw it at somebody underneath, and they'd be
  covered in this dust, like flour. Nowadays, if
  there's a chance of a matchstick head of asbestos
  about it's contained, sealed, taken away. You
  know, you can't work there, you can't go close to
  it. In those days, so who knows what's in
  people's lungs now, waiting to become malignant.
• Interviewer And did you say some people you
  know were...
• Toby Bundock Yes, I know of two people and I
  know one that's dying at this very moment, you
  know, he's got a year or two to live. From
  Berkeley Power Station and Aubrey, which is a bit
  sad and it's a bit... concerns you a little bit,
  cos, it could be you next and it comes about very
  quickly and not a very pleasant death.
• Interviewer Right, and is that the sort of
  thing you've checked out or...
• Toby Bundock I have had checked out, yeah. And
  now that they've recognised it they didn't know
  how bad it was, nobody did, all other industries
  were exactly the same, the aircraft industry,
  ICI, all the... all industries, you know, the
  construction industry particularly bad.

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Biography and Risk Concern Intersection E.g. 4

• There was something that happened in the summer
  this year, our youngest the baby was diagnosed
  with genetic condition. Both Gibson and I were
  evaluated to see if we were carriers and neither
  one of us are and it's a spontaneous occurrence
  of this genetic disorder which is somewhat
  unusual and we did have a conversation, well I
  wonder if it was because of the proximity or some
  kind of elevation in radiation or if she was
  conceived and I was pregnant the whole time lt??gt
  and it's one of those things where winners are
  known so when things don't quite add up you start
  looking, well could it be that. We both know it
  probably isn't linked at all but it's one of
  those kind of unanswered questions and if it was
  something where some of the other kids in the
  village all of a sudden came up with this
  disorder that's like um, maybe there is something
  to it.
• (Melanie Windsor, Bradwell)

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Facilitated expression of difficult to express
ideas feelings

• Humour/Irony
• Interviewer Does the fact that its a nuclear
  power station have any affect on the way you live
  your life at all?
• Oscar Berk Uh not really, um we have the
  warning system, which can be a bit scary because
  unfortunately they havent got it quite right it
  starts of by telling you theres a major problem
  and then saying its just a test, Id prefer it
  to do it the other way round (amusement) scariest
  thing there is that, run for your lives,
  actually its just a test (amusement).
• (Oscar Berk, Oldbury)

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• Metaphors/Tropes
• Brandon Heitman Years ago when it was first
  built and for the first few years, well up until
  probably ten years ago, they used to come round
  here, always on a Sunday, whether they got paid
  overtime I dont know , to do all these checks,
  but what the worrying thing was theyd park
  outside here and theyd all get out in their
  white suits, like a space suit, helmet and
  everything to do all the testing, well there we
  were sort of just ordinary and they did that up
  until ten years ago when the power station, I
  presume, was safe and everything. Now its
  getting towards its end and they, all around our
  fields they used to have lampshades
• Molly Heitman Well they used to come and test
• Brandon Heitman They used to come and test out,
  well they havent got those now. It seems to me
  that they do far less tests now when its more
  likely the power stations going to be leaking
  radiation I should have thought, when its been
  warned, then everyday, years ago always seemed,
  well it was wannit? Always on a Sunday night they
  used to be about here doing it
• Molly Heitman About teatime
• Brandon Heitman Yeah
• Interviewer And how did it make you feel when
  you saw them doing this?
• Brandon Heitman Well worried to death cause
  when they get out in their spacesuits and youre
  part of it you, cause sometimes they come and
  did it if they had an incident down there didnt
  they? Well you know, we had no protection
  whatsoever
• (Brandon and Molly Heitman, Oldbury)

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Scope to study imaginary positions

• INTERVIEWER2 In terms of all the lt??gt I was
  just thinking, is there anything you would like
  to see in terms of consultation or any specific
  lt??gt that the Government could do that would
  improve the situation?
• ROY They could take that power station down and
  they can make site look more respectable so that
  they can take the stigma away from us and they
  don't have to rebuild, they mustn't think they've
  got a nuclear community, they can always do what
  they want here. They thought they could do that
  with Nyrex and they couldn't. It's not only a
  naïve thing for them to believe but a dirty
  attitude. It's like we can shit on this
  community. lt??gt in the middle of Birmingham or
  somewhere, Hyde Park, they build them out in
  communities who didn't have the power to protest.

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Comments on narrative interview strategy how it
worked continued

• Useful strategy for investigating meaningfully
  different forms of risk awareness subjectivity
  (private risk reflexivity)

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Reflexivity E.g. 1

• Interviewer Have either of you ever been
  concerned about things like radiation discharges
  into the Severn or into the atmosphere or waste
  issues, you know, transportation of waste, those
  sorts of things?
• Naomi Gerritson Yes um radiation no, Im not
  concerned, rightly or wrongly I have confidence
  in them that theyre not doing anything polluting
  too badly because I actually think that pollution
  from other sources is probably worse than
  anything that comes out of the power station,
  thats my view of radiation but waste,
  transportation of waste and the waste itself does
  worry me
• Olivia Gerritson No way mum, Im sorry but do
  you not remember the time they had that big truck
  thing that was moving waste, did you not remember
  that? And they closed that whole road and they
  had these police coming either side of it and
  what did we do if you were that scared of waste
  that instead of just going oh theres some waste
  out there that we actually got out off our
  seats, actually into the road and watched it go
  by, taking photos of the giant thing
• Naomi Gerritson Yes that was fine, that was one
  thing but Im talking generally, this is a
  general thing, Im not talking about that one
  specific, they had to take away part of a reactor
  or something
• Olivia Gerritson Yeah it was massive
• Naomi Gerritson And it was huge and they had to
  strengthen the bridges and I dont know what else
  
• Olivia Gerritson Yeah put stuff on the bridges
• Naomi Gerritson But that was one isolated
  thing, Im talking generally, I dont know
  whether your question was general or specific but
  that to me, in general I do contact waste with...
• (Naomi and Olivia Gerritson, Oldbury)

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Reflexivity E.g. 2

• PHILLIP I was young then, I didnt care. I used
  to go to sleep on top of a ton of explosive, you
  just didn't think about it.
• R Do you think you would think differently
  about it now?
• PHILLIP I dont think so. I just don't worry
  about them sort of things. I remember the last
  job there actually. We had a load of TNT come in
  and to move anything down there it was on black
  lt??gt on railway lines, metal wheels and metal
  tracks and I remember pushing this down and then
  one box fell off and nearly cut it in half. How
  it didn't go up I don't know because you've only
  just got to hit that stuff and I had two ton of
  it on that truck so I would have been in orbit.
  You're always living with some sort of danger.
• (Phillip Cabot, Bradwell)

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Risk, framing reflexivity

• Allowed for differences to emerge in
  participants narratives some constructing as
  potentially hazardous, while others narrative
  normalised the risk
• I dont particularly, I mean the safety record
  in this country is unbelievable, I mean I know
  accidents can happen like Chernobyl and things
  but I just think, I cant imagine the power
  station getting to that stage, I mean there was a
  little fire last week and it was shut down
  instantly, the fire wasnt even anywhere near the
  reactors, well from what I heard on the news it
  wasnt anywhere near the reactors and it was just
  a piece of kit blew like any piece of kit can
  blow, you know, your toaster can blow and it
  caught fire and they instantly shut everything
  down and I just think that were so safety
  conscious, you know, I mean its people that work
  there and theyve got to be safety conscious,
  its their health and their life isnt it? So no,
  it doesnt bother me
• (Teagan Sloane, )

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Concluding remarks

1. In telling (fragments) of their life stories,
   people portrayed dynamic, contextually embedded,
   ways of responding/living with risk
2. Our approach to narrative study involved avoiding
   imposing risk frames on interviewees (the use of
   risk) albeit have never thought about it
   gave less leeway to negotiate risk framing with
   interviewees
3. Narratives not always elicited do not resolve
   conversational reluctance of some interviewees
   would have elicited fewer without its mix of
   narrative more focussed questions
4. The narrative approach also facilitated the use
   of other forms of analysis e.g. the creation of a
   comprehensive, in-depth thematic framework
   analysis.