The Social and Cultural Construction of Risk

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvi

   PDF

2. Reality, Perception, and the Social Construction of Risk

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. Risk and Relativism in Science for Policy

      • Steve Rayner

      Pages 5-23

3. Community Dynamics and the Social Construction of Risk

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 25-25

      PDF

   2. Risk Perception in Community Context: A Case Study

      • Janet M. Fitchen, Jenifer S. Heath, June Fessenden-Raden

      Pages 31-54

   3. Chemicals and Community at Love Canal

      • Martha R. Fowlkes, Patricia Y. Miller

      Pages 55-78

4. Environmental Protest Movements, Citizen Groups, and the Social Construction of Risk

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 79-79

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   2. Challenging Official Risk Assessments via Protest Mobilization: The TMI Case

      • Edward J. Walsh

      Pages 85-101

   3. Protest Movements and the Construction of Risk

      • Luther P. Gerlach

      Pages 103-145

   4. The Environmentalist Movement and Grid/Group Analysis: A Modest Critique

      • Branden B. Johnson

      Pages 147-175

5. Agenda-Setting, Group Conflict, and the Social Construction of Risk

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 177-177

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   2. Macro-Risks, Micro-Risks, and the Media: The EDB Case

      • Harold Issadore Sharlin

      Pages 183-197

   3. The Political Symbolism of Occupational Health Risks

      • Janet M. Bronstein

      Pages 199-226

6. Organizations and the Social Construction of Risk

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 227-227

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   2. The Environmental Movement Comes to Town: A Case Study of an Urban Hazardous Waste Controversy

      • Richard P. Gale

      Pages 233-250

   3. Communicating Information about Workplace Hazards: Effects on Worker Attitudes Toward Risks

      • Michael S. Brown

      Pages 251-274

   4. Defining Risk within a Business Context: Thomas A. Edison, Elihu Thomson, and the a.c—d.c. Controversy, 1885–1900

      • W. Bernard Carlson, A. J. Millard

      Pages 275-293

7. Experts and the Social Construction of Risk

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 295-295

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   2. Risk and the American Engineering Profession: The ASME Boiler Code and American Industrial Safety Standards

      • Eugene S. Ferguson

      Pages 301-316

   3. Environmental Risk in Historical Perspective

      • Joel A. Tarr, Charles Jacobson

      Pages 317-344

The Social and Cultural Construction of Risk: Issues, Methods, and Case Studies Vincent T. Covello and Branden B. Johnson Risks to health, safety, and the environment abound in the world and people cope as best they can. But before action can be taken to control, reduce, or eliminate these risks, decisions must be made about which risks are important and which risks can safely be ignored. The challenge for decision makers is that consensus on these matters is often lacking. Risks believed by some individuals and groups to be tolerable or accept­ able - such as the risks of nuclear power or industrial pollutants - are intolerable and unacceptable to others. This book addresses this issue by exploring how particular technological risks come to be selected for societal attention and action. Each section of the volume examines, from a different perspective, how individuals, groups, communities, and societies decide what is risky, how risky it is, and what should be done. The writing of this book was inspired by another book: Risk and Culture: An Essay on the Selection of Technoloqical and Environmental Dangers. Published in 1982 and written by two distinguished scholars - Mary Douglas, a British social anthropologist, and Aaron Wildavsky, an American political scientist - the book received wide critical attention and offered several provocative ideas on the nature of risk selection, perception, and acceptance.

• environment
• environmental movement
• formation
• health
• organization
• risk assessment
• safety

• Michigan Technological University, USA

  Branden B. Johnson

• National Science Foundation, USA

  Vincent T. Covello

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