Bodies as Evidence: Activists’ and Patients’ Responses to Asbestos Risk in South Korea

Abstract

This article examines how lay people’s response to risk can be shaped by their relationships with activists, by revealing the dynamics behind publicly expressed concerns. To do so, the article analyses data from the participant observation of ‘ban-asbestos activism’ in South Korea, as well as from interviews with activists and patients who are deeply involved in that activism. Operating from an understanding of lay people as a heterogeneous group of constantly interacting actors with a diverging understanding of, and concerns about, risks, this article shows that patients’ concerns about asbestos risk have been marginalised by the activists involved in ban-asbestos activism. In translating individual disease experiences caused by asbestos exposure into a risk faced by the general public by extracting generalisable data, activists’ popular epidemiology has largely disregarded patients’ voices that are rooted in the lives lived with ill bodies. In this regard, this is similar to the epidemiological studies conducted by the government. Thus, this article argues that a power relationship exists between activists and patients within the ban-asbestos activism, similar to, if not identical to, that of the expert–lay relationship. This study emphasises the importance of regarding bodies—that is, bodily experiences of living with illness—as valuable evidence in risk governance and policy.