Product Description

In this lively and engaging introduction to one of today's major sociocultural concepts, Deborah Lupton examines why risk has come to such prominence recently.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #132562 in Books
• Published on: 1999-03-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

From the Back Cover
`This book provides a thorough review of the diverse theoretical perspectives used to define risks and develops strategies to manage them. The author's own cultural perspective on risk perceptions, emphasizing the importance of social and cultural beliefs, enriches the debates in this area. This will be an extremely useful text.
Dorothy Nelkin, Department of Sociology, New York University
We are often told that we are now living in a risk society. In this book, Deborah Lupton examines why risk has come to such prominence at this particular point in history. The author traces how risk has been constructed over time from pre-modernity to the later modern era and provides an introduction to the main theories surrounding the subject. She covers a wide range of issues including
Risk and culture
Sociocultural and scientific perspectives
Risk and blame
Risk and pleasure
Including examples of the ways in which risk is experienced in everyday life, Risk provides a lively and engaging introduction t

About the Author
Deborah Lupton is Associate Professor in Cultural Studies and Cultural Policy and Director of the Centre for Cultural Risk Research at Charles Sturt University, Australia. Her latest books include The New Public Health: Health and Self in the Age of Risk (1996) and The Emotional Self (1998).

Customer Reviews

Overview of Risk in the Social Sciences
This book is an excellent overview of the many aspects there are to risk from a social science point of view. The book is written in an accessible language and structured into chapters. Rather than spending hours reading the originals, you can get an overview by reading this book. The book is fairly comprehensive with the aspects covered and up-to-date with the developments in areas such as globalization and risk society. If you have never studied social sciences, this book is suitable as well. The author does without long wound sentences and unnecessary jargon. Recommended.

Interesting ideas about risk, but not really a book about risk itself
The author is a sociologist and this book is a sociological exploration of the concept of risk and attitudes towards it.

As a non-sociologist, unfamiliar with the jargon of sociology, I found it difficult for the first few chapters to decide whether this was an interesting study of cultural aspects of risk perception or a pretentious pile of old twaddle. I finally settled on the former.

If you're looking for a book that will clearly explain the meaning and science of risk then this isn't the book for you - you want "Risk" by John Adams, with a side order of "Death on the Streets" by Bob Davis. If, on the other hand, you're interested in why perceptions of risk so often differ from the reality and why people don't always respond to risk in the manner that you might expect then this book will be of interest (though an abridged version might be useful, as there's a fair amount of repetition in the first few chapters).