Student: AnaCapri Mauro
Graduation date: May 2017
Capstone type: Thesis
Capstone project:
Living With the Throat of Fire: The Role of Trust in Impending Volcanic Disaster
Capstone file(s): Show file | Show file
This paper examines different aspects of trust in Baños de Agua Santa, a small tourist destination in Ecuador that sits at the base of the active Tungurahua Volcano. Through a methodology that included constructing a timeline of eruptive, political, and social events, and conducting a thematic analysis of statements compiled from interviews, newspapers, journal articles, and films, I aimed to answer the question: What factors influenced citizen trust of governmental and scientific authorities, and how did this trust impact perceived certainty of the volcanic hazards? I coded seventy-one statements into three broad categories (Trust, Certainty, Agency) and then further into subcategories. I found that the subcategories of Competence, Credibility/Reliability, and Care were the most frequently referenced dimensions of trust and posit that because the scientists in the region did not perceivably demonstrate these desired characteristics of trust they received the bulk of the blame for the disruption to citizen livelihoods.