Risk in the Modern Age Social Theory, Science and Environmental Decision-Making

by Cohen, Maurie J.

• ISBN13: 9780312222161
• ISBN10: 0312222165
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-01-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Form nuclear power to food safety, scientific experts and members of the general public differ sharply on the assessment of risk. Is there any way to bridge the divide between these competing epistemologies? During recent years social theorists have begun to turn their attention to this perplexing issue and to examine what risk controversies might be able to tell us about the current phase of modernity. This volume consists of contributions by leading environmental sociologists who explore how sociological insights can help to inform environmental decision-making.

Author Biography

Maurie J. Cohen is Research Fellow in Environmental Risk at the Oxford Center for the Environment, Ethics and Society, Mansfield College.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables	ix
List of Contributors	xi
Preface	xiii
PART I INTRODUCTION
Environmental Sociology, Social Theory, and Risk: an Introductory Discussion	3	(32)
Maurie J. Cohen
PART II CRITIQUES OF RISK AND RATIONALITY
The Rational Actor Paradigm in Risk Theories: Analysis and Critique	35	(27)
Ortwin Renn
Carlo C. Jaeger
Eugene A. Rosa
Thomas Webler
Menus of Choice: the Social Embeddedness of Decisions	62	(21)
Kristen Purcell
Lee Clarke
Linda Renzulli
PART III THEORETICAL EXTENSIONS OF THE RISK SOCIETY
Dealing with Environmental Risks in Reflexive Modernity	83	(24)
Joris Hogenboom
Arthur P. J. Mol
Gert Spaargaren
The `Risk Society' Reconsidered: Recreancy, the Division of Labor, and Risks to the Social Fabric	107	(16)
William R. Freudenburg
PART IV EMPIRICAL ASSESSMENTS OF REFLEXIVE MODERNIZATION
`Outsiders Just Don't Understand': Personalization of Risk and the Boundary Between Modernity and Postmodernity	123	(20)
Michael R. Edelstein
The Exxon Valdez Disaster as Localized Environmental Catastrophe: Dissimilarities to Risk Society Theory	143	(30)
J. Steven Picou
Duane A. Gill
PART V RISK AND ENVIRONMENTAL DECISION-MAKING
Discovering and Inventing Hazardous Environments: Sociological Knowledge and Publics at Risk	173	(23)
Stephen R. Couch
Steve Kroll-Smith
Jeffrey D. Kindler
Scientific Evidence or Lay People's Experience? On Risk and Trust with Regard to Modern Environmental Threats	196	(29)
Rolf Lidskog
Taming Risks through Dialogues: the Rationality and Functionality of Discursive Institutions in Risk Society	225	(26)
Klaus Eder
PART VI CONCLUSION
A Historical Perspective on Risk	251	(7)
David Lowenthal
Index	258