Coordinator(s): Rolf Lidskog (Örebro University, Sweden)
Scientific advances, technological development and changes in risk consciousness have led to stronger demands on society to manage and control various kinds of risks. Risk should be assessed, prevented, controlled and communicated in order to avoid severe negative impacts. Much thinking about risk management treats risk as separate from, and external to, its social context, thereby concealing the political and conflictual nature of risk issues. There are not only diverse definitions and understandings of risk, but the benefits and burdens of risk generation are unevenly distributed, socially, spatially and temporally.
This working group welcome papers that discusses environmental and risk issues in contemporary society. Contributions will range across different levels of analysis, theoretical approaches and methods. Presentations can be either in the form of a written paper circulated beforehand (with a discussant appointed) or an oral presentation (no paper circulated beforehand).