Fishing in River, Confrontations at Risks and Ambiguous Situations

The contributions dealing with industrial risks bring to light the organizational and sociological causes which provoked accidents (Perrow, 1984; Vaughan, 1996) or those who prevent them (Laporte, on 1996). They also reveal the controversies which denounce the presence of the works modifying the living environment of the local residents (Lolive, 1997), or externalities are denounced as being risks (Chataureynaud and Torny, 1999; Borraz, 2008). But what about cases where the local residents do not denounce the industrial risks and confront themselves with the risks? And what can be their incidence on the risk management?

Not feeding controversies towards the industrial works and their risks, the local residents can even develop practices of leisure near the industrial works, minimize the incurred risks and go against rules. If the theory of the perception of risks (Slovic, 1992) and opportunities (Star, 1969) are first useful theories, sometimes the ambiguous role of rules and the political positioning of actors around them, allow to understand better the confrontation of the local residents to the risks.

To develop these points, we shall approach the confrontation of fishermen at the risks generated by the hydroelectric exploitation of rivers. Beginning with a description of rivers (I), the contribution will analyze the reasons bringing fishermen's specific segment to confront with their risks (II). If their limited recognition, their rhetoric of underestimate and their perceptions bring them to trivialize the risks (III), their practices are facilitated by multiple rules which create ambiguous situations (Lot, 2008). They clarify the situations by establishing " cognitive compromises " (Amalberti, on 1996) or by mobilizing " techniques of neutralization " (Sykes and Matza, on 1957) to justify their practices (IV). The ambiguous situations are maintained by the associations of fishermen in order to develop their practice.