The Social Amplification of Risk

The management of and communication about risks has become a major question of public policy and intellectual debate in the modern world. The social amplification of risk framework describes how both social and individual factors act to amplify or dampen perceptions of risk and through this create secondary effects such as stigmatisation of technologies, economic losses or regulatory impacts. This volume, edited by three of the world's leading analysts of risk and its communication, brings together contributions from a group of international experts working in the field of risk perception and risk communication. Key conceptual issues are discussed as well as a range of recent case studies (spanning BSE and food safety, AIDS/HIV, nuclear power, child protection, Y2K, electromagnetic fields, and waste incineration) that take forward the state-of-the-art in risk amplification theory. The volume also draws attention to lessons for public policy, risk management and risk communication practice.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Nick Pidgeon, Roger E. Kasperson and Paul Slovic; Part I. Conceptual Foundations: 1. The social amplification of risk: assessing fifteen years of research and theory Jeanne X. Kasperson, Roger E. Kasperson, Nick Pidgeon and Paul Slovic; 2. The logical structure of the social amplification of risk framework (SARF): metatheoretical foundations and policy implications Eugene A. Rosa; 3. Social amplification of risk and the layering method Glynis M. Breakwell and Julie Barnett; 4. Institutional failure and the organizational amplification of risks: the need for a closer look William R. Freudenburg; Part II. Risk Signals and the Mass Media: 5. Trust, transparency and social context: implications of social amplification of risk Lynn J. Frewer; 6. Risk and relativity: BSE and the British media John Eldridge and Jacquie Reilly; 7. After amplification: rethinking the role of the media in risk communication Graham Murdock, Judith Petts and Tom Horlick-Jones; 8. Plague and arsenic: assignment of blame in the mass media and the social amplification and attenuation of risk Arvind Susarla; Part III. Public Perceptions and Social Controversy: 9. The dynamics of risk amplification and attenuation in context: a French case study Marc Poumadère and Claire Mays; 10. Public response to Y2K: social amplification and risk adaptation: or 'How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Y2K' Donald G. MacGregor; 11. The social dynamics of environmental risk perception: implications for risk communication research and practice Tom Horlick-Jones, Jonathan Sime and Nick Pidgeon; 12. Understanding amplification of complex risks issues: the risk story model applied to the EMF case Peter M. Wiedemann, Martin Clauberg and Holger Schütz; Part IV. Risk Ripples and Stigma Effects: 13. Integrating politics with the social amplification of risk framework: insights from an exploration in the criminal justice context Rajeev Gowda; 14. Nuclear stigma James Flynn; Part V. Policy and Management: 15. Searching for the public policy relevance of the risk amplification framework William Leiss; 16. Social amplification of risk in participation: two case studies Ortwin Renn; Bibliography; Index.

About the Author :
Nick Pidgeon is Professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia, and Director of the Centre for Environmental Risk. He has written extensively on risk communication and perception issues, including a major contribution to the UK Royal Society Report on Risk (1992), as well as on causes of organisational accidents. He is the author of Man-Made Disasters (1997). Roger E. Kasperson is Director of the Stockholm Environment Institute. He is the leading geographer in the field of risk and risk communication over the last 30 years. His publications include Communicating Risks to the Public (with J. Stallen, 1991), Nuclear Risks in Comparative Perspective (1987), Acceptable Evidence: Science and Values in Hazard Management (with J. X. Kasperson, 1991), and Regions at Risk (with J. X. Kasperson and B. L. Turner, 1995). Paul Slovic is President of Decision Research and Professor of Psychology at the University of Oregon. He is the leading psychologist in the field of risk perception and behavioral decision making over the past 30 years. His publications include Acceptable Risk with B. Fischhoff, S. Lichtenstein, R. Keeney and P. Derby (Cambridge, 1981), Judgement Under Uncertainty with D. Kahneman and A. Tversky (2nd edition, Cambridge, 2002), The Perception of Risk (2000), and Risk Media and Stigma with J. Flynn and H. Kunreuther (2001).

Review :
'This volume discusses key conceptual issues as well as a range of recent case studies (spanning BSE and food safety, AIDS/HIV, nuclear power, child protection, Y2K, electromagnetic fields, and waste incineration …'. Social Science Newsletter