Abstract
This article describes the failure of issue management communication in resolving an enduring pollution crisis stretching over two decades in South Africa’s South Durban Industrial Basin (SDIB). A crisis of responsibility has arisen from a postmodern, neoliberal order. Concerns of residents are overridden in favour of nationally significant economic growth objectives. As a result “local” issues are communicated by global coalitions seeking environmental justice through modernist notions of “science” communicated in a postmodern, global context. The lack of public confi dence, trust and the unmet expectations of participation in the environmental decision-making of government agencies and corporations is revealed. Local mobilisations look to broader spaces of engagement, including international activist organisations and international media as the unresolved crisis is deepened by state coercion and industry intransigence.
Highlights
It is difficult to find a scholarly account of any conflict in Africa, Asia or Latin America which is not imputed in some way to economic globalisation and the “new neoliberal order” (Van de Walle 1998)
Modernism can be characterised as a way of describing the world that is based on two assumptions: (1) that there exists a singular reality; and (2) that this reality can be discovered and described by the methods of science (Habermas 1990)
The centrality of scientific expertise to modernist positions is dictated by the system of environmental governance instituted in South Africa, which adopted the international framework of Local Agenda 21
Summary
It is difficult to find a scholarly account of any conflict in Africa, Asia or Latin America which is not imputed in some way to economic globalisation and the “new neoliberal order” (Van de Walle 1998). The majority of scholarly work on issue management communication seldom interrogates in any detail how neoliberalism, defined as a partnership between big business and government, impacts on the free flow of information and prevents meaningful resolution from taking place. Little attention is paid to the individual accounts and experiences of those who have endured a crisis. Competing perceptions of reality between authorities and affected residents and commercial agents of causation characterise such crises. These remain enduring and perplexing questions in issue and crisis management communication (Jacques 2014; Simons 2016)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
