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RN22
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Sociology
of Risk and Uncertainty |
about |
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of the
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Risk is pervasive. In the last 20 years the concept spread into a huge amount of societal domains. The original focus on technical and environmental risks widened to areas as health and physical/mental illness, crime, regulation, social inequality, the media, public and social policy, life-style, globalisation and global risk as well as the management of everyday life and intimate relationships. Since the diversity of risk-domains is neither covered by technical or psychological approaches nor by the research on catastrophes a wider societal perspective on risk and uncertainty is needed. The Research Network "Sociology of Risk and Uncertainty" (RN22) was founded in 2006 by the ESRC Social Contexts and Responses to Risk Network (SCARR) with the support of 13 members of ESA. RN22 had its launch at the Glasgow conference of ESA, 3-6 September 2007. The central aims of the RN22 research network are to establish a sustainable discourse on the sociology of risk and uncertainty in order to support and trigger new theoretical and empirical developments in (trans-) national research. The research network goes beyond the traditional approaches on risk perception, risk communication and sociology of catastrophes with a societal perspective on risk and uncertainty referring to theoretical traditions of cultural theory (Douglas, Tulloch/Lupton), risk society and reflexive modernization (Beck, Giddens), governmentality (Foucault, Ewald), systems theory (Luhmann, Japp) and edgework (Lyng). It will initiate theoretical discussion and research in and across different approaches (as well as interdisciplinary), and will trigger and support new and recent developments in theorizing and research. Such new developments among others are: - Shift from doing research on 'risk' to 'risk and uncertainty' as recently expressed in the governmentality approach and the reflexive modernization perspective. - Broadening of the perspective from risk as rational management of uncertainty to pre-rational and non-rational strategies to manage uncertainties and mixed forms as trust, emotion, intuition etc. - Biograpical (un-)certianty
in addition to the everyday life perspective. To realize the aims of the network - An email list was created. If you would like to become a member of RN22 of the European Sociological Association (ESA) please do not hesitate to contact the network's chair or go direct to the ESA homepage (http://www.valt.helsinki.fi/esa/membership.htm). For subscription to the RN22 email list, please contact the chair of the network. Chair: Jens O. Zinn (University
of Melbourne, Australia) jzinn@unimelb.edu.au
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