Risk in the modern age : social theory, science and environmental decision-making / edited by Maurie J. Cohen.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Cohen, Maurie J.

Anglo-German Foundation for the Study of Industrial Society.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Environmental risk assessment.

Environmentalism--Social aspects.

Environmentalism.

Environmentalism--Decision making.

Decision making.

Physical Description:

xv, 264 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : St. Martin's Press in association with Anglo-German Foundation for the Study of Industrial Society, 2000.

Summary:

From a June-July 1997 workshop at Oxford, England, environmental sociologists look at the processes by which official experts and the general population come up with very different decisions about risk in such areas as nuclear power, genetic testing, food safety, and biodiversity. They explore the role of increasing individualization, emerging new social movements, and the declining public trust in public institutions. They hope to demonstrate the practical value of both the empirical American and theoretical European schools of the new discipline.

Contents:

Pt. I. Introduction. 1. Environmental Sociology, Social Theory, and Risk: an Introductory Discussion / Maurie J. Cohen

Pt. II. Critiques of Risk and Rationality. 2. The Rational Actor Paradigm in Risk Theories: Analysis and Critique / Ortwin Renn, Carlo C. Jaeger and Eugene A. Rosa / [et al.]. 3. Menus of Choice: the Social Embeddedness of Decisions / Kristen Purcell, Lee Clarke and Linda Renzulli

Pt. III. Theoretical Extensions of the Risk Society. 4. Dealing with Environmental Risks in Reflexive Modernity / Joris Hogenboom, Arthur P. J. Mol and Gert Spaargaren. 5. The 'Risk Society' Reconsidered: Recreancy, the Division of Labor, and Risks to the Social Fabric / William R. Freudenburg

Pt. IV. Empirical Assessments of Reflexive Modernization. 6. 'Outsiders Just Don't Understand': Personalization of Risk and the Boundary Between Modernity and Postmodernity / Michael R. Edelstein. 7. The Exxon Valdez Disaster as Localized Environmental Catastrophe: Dissimilarities to Risk Society Theory / J. Steven Picou and Duane A. Gill

Pt. V. Risk and Environmental Decision-Making. 8. Discovering and Inventing Hazardous Environments: Sociological Knowledge and Publics at Risk / Stephen R. Couch, Steve Kroll-Smith and Jeffrey D. Kindler. 9. Scientific Evidence or Lay People's Experience? On Risk and Trust with Regard to Modern Environmental Threats / Rolf Lidskog. 10.

Taming Risks through Dialogues: the Rationality and Functionality of Discursive Institutions in Risk Society / Klaus Eder

Pt. VI. Conclusion. 11. A Historical Perspective on Risk / David Lowenthal.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

0312222165

OCLC:

123135784