It's Not Whether You Win or Lose, It's How You Place the Blame: Shifting Perceptions of Recreancy in the Context of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Keywords

rural sociology, oil spill, oil spill blame

Abstract

A key theoretical concept in the study of technological disasters is “recreancy,” which refers to perception that institutional actors have failed to carry out their responsibilities in a manner that engenders societal trust. Using household survey data from the Community Oil Spill Survey (COSS) to assess recreancy in the context of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, we analyze four waves of the COSS collected between 2010 and 2013 to explore respondents’ perceptions of blame and distrust in relation to key institutional actors associated with the disaster, paying special attention to the influence of time and employment in natural resource occupations. We show that BP is clearly viewed as the principal responsible party at fault for the disaster and that the odds of blaming BP and the federal government have held relatively steady over time, while the odds of blaming state government increased over time. We find high levels of distrust of BP and the federal government, but show that odds of being distrustful of both institutional actors was significantly lower three years after the spill. Fishing households were significantly more likely to blame and be distrustful of institutional actors, a finding that is strongly consistent with theoretical expectations.

Original Publication Citation

Cope, Michael R., Tim Slack, Troy C. Blanchard, and Matthew R. Lee. 2016. “It's Not Whether You Win Or Lose, It's How You Place The Blame: Assessing Perceptions of Blame for the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.” Rural Sociology, 81:295-315

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2016-02-24

Permanent URL

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/6072

Publisher

Wiley

Language

English

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Sociology

University Standing at Time of Publication

Assistant Professor

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