IntroductionIn sociological research and theory, the concept of risk has excited a great dealof interest in the past decade or so. Much of this interest resulted from thepublication of German sociologist Ulrich Beck’s Risk Society: Towards a NewModernity (1992) and contributions by such well-known theorists as AnthonyGiddens have also added to the debates. So too, writers drawing on MichelFoucault’s perspective on governmentality have applied this perspective toanalyse the role of risk in modern societies. The anthropologist Mary Dou-glas’s work on risk and danger has also been taken up by some sociologists intheir research on risk. Each of these theorists offer a different perspective onrisk as it is understood, dealt with and experienced in contemporary Westernsocieties. Each has not only instigated interesting theoretical investigationsinto the social and cultural aspects of risk but also underpinned empiricalresearch into how people conceptualize and experience risk.
This chapter willexplore both the theoretical ways of understanding the role played by risk aspart of modern consciousness and also how social researchers have in-vestigated risk empirically. The chapter begins with an overview of majortheoretical perspectives on risk in sociology, each of which draws upon thetheorists referred to above. I then give some examples of applied researchstudies undertaken which have elucidated the social and cultural aspects ofrisk that are emphasized by sociologists. The chapter ends with some com-ments on the possible directions for further research in this field and suggestshow sociologists might productively collaborate with other social sciencedisciplines.Major theoretical perspectives on riskElsewhere (Lupton 1999a, 1999b), I have identified three major theoreticalperspectives in sociological writings on risk. These are the ‘risk society’,‘cultural/symbolic’ and ‘governmentality’ perspectives. Each of these ap-proaches is based upon a different body of literature and has a particular way
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