Health, Risk and Vulnerability

The concept of risk is one of the most suggestive terms for evoking the cultural character of our times and for defining the purpose of social research. Risk attitudes and behaviours are understood to comprise the dominant experience of culture, politics and society in our times.

Health, Risk and Vulnerability investigates the personal and political dimensions of health risk that structure everyday thought and action. In this innovative book, international contributors reflect upon the meaning and significance of risk across a broad range of social and institutional contexts, exploring current issues such as:

• the ‘escalation of the medicalization of life’, involving the pathologization of normality and blurring of the divide between clinical and preventive medicine
• the tendency for mental health service users to be regarded as representing a risk to others rather than being ‘at risk’ and vulnerable themselves
• the development of health care systems to identify risk and prevent harm
• women’s reactions to ‘high risk’ screening results during pregnancy and how they communicate with other women about risk
• men and the use the internet to reconstruct their social and sexual identities

Charting new terrain in the sociology of health and risk, and focusing on the connections between them, Health, Risk and Vulnerability offers new perspectives on an important field of contemporary debate and provides an invaluable resource for students, teachers, researchers, and policy makers.

Alan Petersen is Professor of Sociology, School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University, Australia.Iain Wilkinson is a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Kent where he teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses on the sociology of risk and social theory. He convenes the BSA study group on Risk & Society.

At the same time as we may be characterised as living in a 'risk society', most understand this to involve a major preoccupation with matters pertaining to bodily health, safety, and insecurity.By focusing explicitly on the connections between health, risk, and insecurity, this book will offer new perspectives on an important field of contemporary debate and provide an invaluable resource for students, teachers, researchers, and policy makers.In The Vulnerable Society: Health, Risk and Insecurity, writers reflect upon the meaning and significance of risk across a broad range of social and institutional contexts. We highlight the concept of insecurity to draw attention to the subjective and emotional dimensions of health risk that structure everyday thought and action. Recent sociological writing on risk has emphasised the significance of uncertainty as an aspect of 'reflexive modernisation' with late modern societies characterised by growing recognition of the unpredictability of the threats posed by processes of techno-industrial development. The regulation of risk is oriented to controlling 'manufactured' uncertainty. Thus far, there has been little systematic attention to the significance of risk and uncertainty for perceptions of personal threat or 'sense of security'. Frequent news reports of health scares, combined with conflicting expert information about the risks (e.g. SARS, MMR, food contamination, electromagnetic radiation), it has been argued, contribute to anxiety or 'ontological insecurity'.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.