This book focuses on health risks, a domain in which risk expansion has been particularly prolific. As a result of massive gains in scientific knowledge, made possible by statistical developments, data accumulation and computerisation over the last decades, more and more attention has been geared towards risks in the fields of public health and medicine.

Specifically directed towards concrete experiences of health risks, the book analyses the social contexts in which these experiences occur to understand how people, in their diverse positions, actually think, feel, act, and interact around experiences of risk. The author argues that recurrent debates about risk exist because most of the time the notion leaves aside the complexity of social processes surrounding actual experiences and interpretations of vulnerability and danger in society.

This book will be of interest to students and scholars of sociology of health and medicine and risk studies, as well as health professionals and policy-makers facing the complexity of acting and deciding in the risk society.

This book is open access, which means that you have free and unlimited access Brings together empirical studies on health risk experiences with social theory of risk Emphasizes the profoundly normative nature of the concept of risk Focuses on social contexts in which health risks are interpreted, applied, and contested

Autorentext

Claudine Burton-Jeangros is Professor of Sociology at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. Her research focuses on social inequalities in health, health trajectories and interpretations of risks. Her most recent book is the co-edited volume Managing the Global Health Response to Epidemics: Social Science Perspectives (2019), with Mathilde Bourrier and Nathalie Brender. Her work has been published in journals such as Frontiers in Public Health, BMC Public Health, Sociology of Health & Illness, and Social Science & Medicine.

Inhalt

1. Introduction: Experiences of Health Risks.- 2. Knowledge, Uncertainty, and Ignorance around Health Risks.- 3. Anxiety, Fear, and Panic: The Role of Emotions in Prevention - 4. Social Practices and Health Risks.- 5. Moral Judgements Around Experiences of Health Risks.- 6. Social Structures as Determinants of Health Risks.- 7. Conclusion: Health and Risk in Social Contexts.