“Industry impacts more than nature” - Risk perception of natural hazards in more-than-human worlds

Understanding the risk perceptions of natural hazards is vital for disaster mitigation. Despite extensive research on the topic, local and indigenous perspectives often remain marginalized and underrepresented. One reason discussed is the inherent Eurocentrism in knowledge production. Using narrative interviews with fishermen in the Patagonian fjord lands, we developed a grounded theory on risk perception against the background of actor–network theory to adress this criticism.

The emergent order of risk perception research can be described by constructions of natural event systems, attributions of cause and blame, psychological processing and emotional strategies, territorial and professional identity, and perceptions of the national state. The distinction in risk science between natural hazards and environmental degradation, which represents the manifestation of the nature-culture divide, is not necessarily made by people.

By allowing ambiguity in the ontology of nature, including networks of human and non-human actors,a hybrid understanding can be developed. We propose the following basic concepts of this understanding: environmental transformation, human-environment relations, appropriation of nature and ownership structure, displacement of sustainable traditions, and regional common-pool resources. Classifying these perspectives as pre-modern corresponds to the separation of different cultures described by Latour and forms the basis for asymmetrical relationships, reproducing the hegemony of Eurocentric and anthropocentric knowledge production. The separation into hazard and vulnerability can be seen as a manifestation of the second separation and leads to the networks of human and non-human actors that promote resilience being overlooked.