THE SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONSTRUCTION OF RISK: ESSAYS ON RISK SELECTION AND PERCEPTION.

JOHNSON, Branden B., Vincent T. Covello (Eds.), Steve Rayner, Janet M. Fitchen, Jenifer S. Heath, June Fessenden-Raden, Marth R. Fowlkes, Patricia Y. Miller, Edward J. Walsh, Luther P. Gerlach, Et Al.

ISBN 10: 1556080336 / ISBN 13: 9781556080333

Published by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, 1987

About this Item

8vo. pp xvi, 403. Original publisher's brown paper covered boards with pale yellow lettering at spine. Part of, 'Technology, Risk, and Society: An International Series in Risk Analysis', edited by Vincent T. Covello, Jeryl Mumpower, Stuart F. Spicker, Pieter Jan M. Stallen. ISBN: 1556080336 Lower rear corner lightly bumped, some very light marginal pencil annotation, else content clean. Very good indeed.

Seller Inventory # C17714

Bibliographic Details

• Title: THE SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONSTRUCTION OF RISK: ESSAYS ON RISK SELECTION AND PERCEPTION.
• Publisher: D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht
• Publication Date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1556080336
• ISBN 13: 9781556080333
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition

About this title

Synopsis

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.