John Adams (Professor John Adams | UCL Faculty of Social & Historical Sciences) offers a critical analysis of the many ways in which risk judgements find expression in people’s behaviour at work, in their everyday lives and in social and industrial policies. It is honest, painstaking and forthright. Often, it is surprising and even shocking. Confidence in social institutions is called into question; not only the banks and insurance companies, but compliance and safety bodies, international corporations and even the The Royal Society.
Adams begins by reviewing work in this area by previous sociologists such as Durkheim, Malinowski, Parsons, Thompson, Wildavsky. In his journey of discovery he finds fragments of truth, articles of blind faith, distorted logic and bureaucratic gobbledygook that contribute to a disconcertingly confusing picture.
The author postulates that behaviour is governed by the probable costs and benefits of alternative courses of action which are perceived through filters formed from all the previous incidents and associations in the risk-taker’s life. One can’t help position one’s own posture towards risk against this assessment.
Check if this thought-provoking work is in stock at your local library by consulting the online catalogue here Home | South Lanarkshire Libraries (sllclibrary.co.uk)
192 pages in Routledge
First published 1995
ISBN 978-1857280678
John Adams