Joffe, Helene and O'Connor, Cliodhna (2013) Risk Society and Representations of Risks: Earthquakes and Beyond. In: Cities at Risk: Living with Perils in the 21st Century. Advances in Natural and Technological Hazards Research (23). Springer, pp. 9-23. ISBN 9789400761834

Preview

Download (151kB) | Preview

Abstract

This chapter explores how lay publics respond to potential disasters. It contends that the current risk perception field largely neglects the common-sense beliefs and emotions that lie at the root of public responses to risks. The chapter challenges several of the assumptions that buttress the conventional construal of the terms ‘risk’ and ‘perception’. It proposes that the current focus on how the individual mind cognitively processes predictable, calculable phenomena should be replaced by emphasis on how emotional and socio-cultural beings represent often unknowable potential catastrophes. Social representations theory is put forward as a viable theoretical framework within which this shift could be achieved. The chapter illustrates the value of a social representations approach to studying risk by presenting the findings of a cross-cultural study examining social representations of earthquakes in cities at risk of earthquakes in the US, Japan and Turkey. The chapter concludes by proposing routes by which the findings of such studies could be channelled into behavioural intervention programmes.

Item Type:	Book Section
Additional Information:	The definitive version of this article is available at DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-6184-1_2 .
Keywords:	risk; society; risk - representation; earthquakes; urban planning; natural hazards; risk perception;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Science and Engineering > Psychology
Item ID:	6785
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6184-1_2
Depositing User:	Cliodhna O'Connor
Date Deposited:	13 Jan 2016 12:22
Publisher:	Springer
Refereed:	Yes
URI:
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

Repository Staff Only(login required)

Item control page

Downloads

Origin of downloads