Integrating qualitative methodologies into risk assessment: Insights from South Durban

Shirley Brooks,Catherine Sutherland,Dianne Scott,Heli Guy

doi:10.4102/sajs.v106i9/10.324

Abstract

In the field of risk management, there is growing recognition that traditional tools of analysis may be limited in their ability to arrive at a textured understanding of risk as it is actually experienced by communities. This paper begins with the premise that risk is socially constructed by lay people, as well as by scientists, and that this recognition has important implications for the development of risk management approaches. Technical risk assessments can be complemented by qualitative methodologies that are designed to reveal lay or local knowledge of risk. Such research tools were employed in working with respondents from residential communities in the highly industrialised South Durban Basin in KwaZulu-Natal. Here, as in other urban industrial contexts, risk is constructed by residents through their own experience and histories, their understanding of science, and their response to technical management tools. The qualitative approach adopted in this research provided new insight into residents' responses to chronic and acute risk, drew attention to a widening gap between people's actual experiences and the claims of science and risk management experts and exposed currently hidden, everyday risk narratives that are not directly related to the dominant environmental hazards connected with industry, but which significantly impact people's living environments.

Highlights

There has been a growing recognition of the limitations of technical risk assessment tools in arriving at a textured understanding of the way people living in a particular environment, experience and consider the risks they face in their everyday lives
Science is regarded by these residents as an inaccessible domain far removed from their everyday lives and they have limited faith in the technical management tools employed by industries and the municipal authority to address the environmental hazards in the area
We have argued that risk needs to be explored continually, and assessed using conventional scientific knowledge and methodologies, and lay knowledge and perspectives from the social sciences

Summary

Introduction

There has been a growing recognition of the limitations of technical risk assessment tools in arriving at a textured understanding of the way people living in a particular environment, experience and consider the risks they face in their everyday lives. Science is regarded by these residents as an inaccessible domain far removed from their everyday lives and they have limited faith in the technical management tools employed by industries and the municipal authority to address the environmental hazards in the area This situation presents a challenge to scientists who are required to engage in the politics of environmental governance, rather than merely being responsible for producing knowledge for these debates. Qualitative methodologies, we argue, can reveal hidden or discounted risk narratives that need to be taken into account in assessing risk and vulnerability

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