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individual include the emergence of new forms of anxiety
and existential uncertainty associated with the privatization
of risk decision-making (from the state and institutions to
individuals) alongside the fragmentation of traditional social
categories such as gender, the family and class. Risk society
theorists also point to an interaction between new globallocal
environmental risks and social changes: in particular,
a shift in the locus of responsibility for dealing with risks
from state to individual citizens, coupled, paradoxically, with
a need to place greater trust in experts in a technologically
sophisticated and connected world. Erosion of traditional
social identities, such as the certainties offered formerly
by class, profession, gender or family units, are also held to
make the individual more responsible for the risks that they
The public is likely to
be interested in new
technologies, and may
well approach them
with an open mind and
sophisticated (and varied)
perceptions of risks.
face (technically termed the reflexive risk subject), who must
as a result chart his or her own identity (who I am and who
I want to be) and risk biography (what risks must I worry
about in the everyday) in an ever more uncertain world 25
Risk society theory represents, then, a set of arguments
about the way changing socio-economic conditions are
impacting people’s individual risk perceptions and risk
identities 26 . Interestingly, while Beck and Giddens highlight
environmental risks as the domain where risk society is
most acutely felt by people, it may ultimately prove to be
the 2008 financial crisis, alongside the ‘unwinding’ 27 of the
traditional social contracts between citizens and the State in
many Western Nations, that provides the acid test of their
thesis 28 .
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addressed without playing-up the potential negative
aspects, and presented alongside the potential benefits.
Factors that might usefully be communicated include:
the relationship of new technologies to existing
technologies that people have experienced; testing of
new systems; the regulatory system that will protect
people; and the fail-safes built into autonomous
technologies to prevent harm.
Interpretive Approaches to Risk Perception
Very recently a range of interpretative approaches to
everyday risk perceptions have arisen, stressing the
symbolic and locally embedded nature of the sociocultural
element to risks, as well as the ways in which
people actively construct their understandings of risk
issues. These elements of an interpretive approach can
be used to understand the complexly-gendered nature of
environmental risk perceptions, and how it can illuminate
current ethical debates and philosophical reflections on
nuclear energy 29 , a matter that has become of particular
policy concern in the UK post-Fukushima. Drawing on
hermeneutic, phenomenological and discursive traditions,
such perspectives recognize the central roles of meaning
and interpretation in structuring our social interactions and
identity (see also Chapter 9).
Approaches within such a tradition often take a more
locally grounded approach to both the content and origins
of risk perceptions, and seek to explore discussions and
understandings of risk where people are directly exposed
to a hazard such as industrial environmental pollution,
a local chemical or nuclear plant, or a disease outbreak
which affects their everyday lives 30, 31, 32 . The emphasis here
is upon understanding the localized logics and rationalities
that people bring to bear upon an issue, rather than with