Trust and risk in a German chemical town

This article examines the relationship between trust and risk in one of the centres of the global chemical industry, Ludwigshafen in Germany. A single industry town associated for 150 years with BASF the dominant outlook among those living or working there has been one of trust, confidence and pride in the corporation which has 'put the town on the map'. Yet beneath the surface, subtle shifts in public assumptions and expectations about BASF and the town's chemical industry are now occurring. We describe the parameters of public reflection about trust and risk, analyse how characterizations of BASF are changing, and consider how for recent writing on trust helps in understanding its salience in this particular industrial town.