Social Contours of Risk: Volume I: Publics, Risk Communication and the SocialWe live in a 'risk society' where the identification, distribution and management of risks, from new technology, environmental factors or other sources are crucial to our individual and social existence. In The Social Contours of Risk, Volumes I and II, two of the world's leading and most influential analysts of the social dimensions of risk bring together their most important contributions to this fundamental and wide-ranging field. Volume I collects their fundamental work on how risks are communicated among different publics and stakeholders, including local communities, corporations and the larger society. It analyses the problems of lack of transparency and trust, and explores how even minor effects can be amplified and distorted through media and social responses, preventing effective management. The final section investigates the difficult ethical issues raised by the unequal distribution of risk depending on factors such as wealth, location and genetic inheritance - with examples from worker and public protection, facility-siting conflicts, transporting hazardous waste and widespread impacts such as climate change. Volume II centres on the analysis and management of risk in society, in international business and multinationals, and globally. The 'acceptability' of risk to an individual depends on the context, whether the larger society or in, for example, a corporate framework. Their work clarifies the structures and processes for managing risks in the private sector and the factors that produce or impede effective decisions. The authors demonstrate that corporate culture is crucial in determining risk management. They analyse the transfer of corporate risk management systems from industrial to developing countries, and how globalization is spreading and creating new kinds of risk - the combination of traditional and modern hazards presented by climate change, technology transfer and economic growth. They describe the new priorities and capacities needed to deal with these enhanced vulnerabilities around the globe. |
Contents
| 1927 | |
| 1954 | |
Social Distrust as a Factor in Siting Hazardous Facilities and Communicating | 1967 |
Evaluating Risk Communication | |
Considerations and Principles for Risk Communication for Industrial | |
Risk and the Stakeholder Express | |
Hidden Hazards | |
Media Risk Signals and the Proposed Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste | |
Risk Trust and Democratic Theory | |
Assessing 15 Years of Research and Theory | |
Responding to the Double Standard of WorkerPublic Protection | |
Redirecting the US HighLevel Nuclear Waste Programme | |
Searching for Effective Institutions | |
Climate Change Vulnerability and Social Justice | |
Reference | |
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Common terms and phrases
accident agency amplification of risk approach attention behaviour cartoons Chapter climate change concept confidence conflict consequences context cultural decision democratic developing countries economic effects emergency environment equity evaluation exist experience exposure facility siting framework global environmental change Goiânia hazard event hazardous waste HLNW human images impacts increased individual industrial inequities institutions interaction involved issues Kasperson Las Vegas Review-Journal levels major mass media media coverage messages National Nevada nuclear power nuclear waste particular political population potential problems protection public concerns public participation public perceptions radioactive waste regions Renn response risk amplification Risk Analysis risk assessment risk bearers risk communication programmes risk events risk management risk perception risk signals Roger E role safety siting process Slovic social amplification social distrust social trust society sources standards stigma strategies structures studies technical Three Mile Island USNRC values vulnerability Waste Management workers Yucca Mountain