Bücher der Reihe Earthscan Risk in Society

Trust is an important factor in risk management, affecting judgements of risk and benefit, technology acceptance and other forms of cooperation. This book explores various aspects of trust as it relates to risk management and communication. It draws on a wide variety of disciplinary approaches and empirical case studies.

This edited volume looks at whether it is possible to be more transparent about uncertainty in scientific evidence without undermining public understanding and trust. This book will be of great relevance to students, scholars and policy makers with an interest in risk analysis.

Assessing the future is vital in informing public policy decisions. One of the most widespread approaches is the development of scenarios, which are alternative hypothetical futures. Research has indicated, however, that the reality of how professionals go about employing scenarios is often starkly at odds with the theory - a finding that has important ramifications for how the resulting images of the future should be interpreted. It also shows the need for rewriting and updating theory. This book, based on an intensive five year study of how experts actually go about assessing the future, provides a groundbreaking examination of foresighting in action. Obtained via ethnographic techniques, the results lay bare for the first time the real processes by which scenarios are made. It is also the first book to examine foresighting for public policy, which is so often overlooked in favour of business practice. From handling of discontinuity to historical determinism, the analysis reveals and explains why foresight is difficult and what the major pitfalls are. Each chapter ends with a toolkit of recommendations for practice. The book aims to help readers to reflect on their own practices of public-oriented foresight and thus to foster a deeper understanding of the key principles and challenges. Ultimately, this will lead to better informed decision making.

This volume presents the ethical implications of risk information as related to genetics and other health data for policy decisions at clinical, research and societal levels. ¿Ethical, Social and Psychological Impacts of Genomic Risk Communication examines the introduction of new types of health risk information based on faster, cheaper and larger sets of genetic or genomic analysis. Synthesizing the results of a five-year interdisciplinary project, it explores the unsolved ethical and social questions around the sharing of this data, such as: What is best practice in risk communication? What are the normative presumptions and ethical consequences of an increased individual responsibility for ones' health? And how does one deal with the gap between the knowledge of risk and the lack of therapeutic options which often exist for complex diseases, such as dementia or some types of cancer? Drawing on contributions from over 20 experts in the field, this collection examines these questions from a liberal bioethics' perspective, advocating for contextual and cultural-sensitive ethical discussions. ¿This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of theoretical and clinical medical ethics, medical sociology, risk communication and ethics of risk, as well as professionals in clinical genetics.

First Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This book brings together the world's leading risk researchers and practitioners to examine risk communication in research and in practice and explore how to make it more effective in future. Beginning with the evolution of risk communication, the book presents the seminal papers on risk communication of the last twenty-five years along with newly written commentaries by the original authors. The authors reflect on the theoretical and applied underpinnings of their best projects and explore how their approaches could best be used by others. By carefully examining the work already done in risk communication, the book shows the way to better, more reflective practice for the future.

Social trust is a crucial issue to many aspects of modern society. Policy makers continually aspire to winning it and corporations frequently run the risk of losing it. This book provides an analysis for researchers and students of environmental and social sciences and suitable for those engaged in risk management in public and private sectors.

Intends to encourage a multidisciplinary approach to public safety, and the 'reenfranchisement' of those affected by this phenomenon. This book examines the origins of the problem, looks at the tools used by safety assessors and their underlying assumptions, and considers important differences between public life and industry.

Through its exploration of the spatial dimensions of risk, this book offers an approach to theorizing risk, and significant improvements in to how manage, tolerate and take risks. It examines a range of risks, including natural hazards, climate change, political violence, and state failure.

Risk Conundrums brings together a range of key thinkers in the field to explore key issues such as risk communication, indicators and metrics, and risk management, drawing upon case study examples including natural disasters, terrorism and energy transitions. Part I addresses risk conundrums, their properties, and the challenges they pose. In part II, the book turns to a greater emphasis on systematic and regional risk conundrums. Part III considers how risk management can be changed to address these unsolvable conundrums. Alternative pathways are defined and scrutinized and predictions for future developments set out.

Uncertainty governs our lives. This title examines uncertainty in emergency management, intelligence, law enforcement, music, policy and politics. It focuses on key problems such as environmental management, communicable diseases and illicit drugs. It offers major conceptual strands in uncertainty thinking.

Analyses the regulation of 4 kinds of complex and trans-boundary environmental issues: oil protection in the Baltic Sea, mobile phones and radiation protection, climate change adaptation and genetically modified crops. This work offers insights into how dominant frames are constructed, legitimate actors are configured and authority is established.

Explores aspects of trust as it relates to risk management and communication. This book is an examination of trust in its forms and complexities. It integrates diverse research traditions and provides insights into the phenomenon of trust.

Provides guidance on how to manage risks based on a definitive synthesis of the research literature. This title offers a survey of the whole field of risk and demonstrates how scientific, economic, political and civil society actors can participate in inclusive risk governance.

Presents a fundamental critique of the approaches to understanding and managing risk - the 'rational actor paradigm'. This title shows how risk studies must incorporate the competing interests, values, and rationalities of those involved and find a balance of trust and acceptable risk.

The concept of risk is an outgrowth of our society's concern about coping with the dangers of life. This title examines the gap between expert views of risk and public perceptions. It allows the reader to see the evolution of our understanding of such perceptions.

Explores the conception of 'risk as feelings' and examines the interaction of feeling and cognition in the perception of risk. This book highlights perspectives on risk arising from cultural worldviews and concerns about specific hazards pertaining to blood transfusion, biotechnology, prescription drugs, smoking, terrorism, and nanotechnology.

This volume presents the ethical implications of risk information as related to genetics and other health data for policy decisions at clinical, research and societal levels. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of theoretical and clinical medical ethics, medical sociology, risk communication and ethics of risk.

From dams to landfill sites, and power plants to radioactive waste repositories, the siting of facilities is a veritable minefield of conflicts involving industry, planners, authorities, NGOs and citizens. This volume examines risk, power and identity in contests over the siting of infrastructure and industrial facilities.

We 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. This book focuses on the analysis and management of risk in society, in international business and multinationals, and globally.

Local environments such as cities and neighbourhoods are a focal point for those concerned with environmental justice and sustainability. This book examines the changing nature of urban environmental risks, the rules governing the distribution of such risks and their differential impact, how the risks arise and who is responsible.