Trust, risk and the public: The case of the Guelph landfill site

This paper investigates the role of trust in mediating the expert-lay interactions that took place in the recent Guelph Landfill Search Process (GLSP). On a theoretical level, I shall discuss how the emergent expert-lay trust relations, as well as the types of issues raised in the GLSP, were influenced by the conditions of the risk society outlined by Ulrich Beck. It is concluded that a lack of general trust in technology and technical expertise is now a critical variable in the management of modem environmental risks and that the GLSP represents an example of an institutionalized response to this situation.