Risk : a study of its origins, history and politics / Matthias Beck (Queen's University, UK) and Beth Kewell (The University of Stavanger, Norway).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Print version record.

Preface; Contents; List of Tables; List of Figures; List of Illustrations; Introduction; Moral Reach and Ontological Insecurity; Homo Economics and Homo Ludens; About this Book; Chapter One Homo Ludens, Aleatorics and the Birth of Probability; From the Beginning; Cardano's Provenance: A Focus on Risk; Heroes of Aleatory Arithmetic; Play and Politics; Conclusion; Chapter Two Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Fictions of Risk; Mapping the Ground; Post-Enlightenment Disasters and the Origins of Pessimism; Historical Disasters and the Fear of the Present.

Dangers of Urban Life and Societal Dimensions of DisasterXenophobic Visions and the 'Political' Disaster Novel; War in the West; Wars with Asians; Conclusion; Chapter Three 'Pseudo-Sciences' of Risk; Setting the Scene; Dangerous Crowds and Technologies; Racial Hierarchies and Racial Threats; Endangered 'Rulers'; From Local Threat to Global Race War; Conclusion; Chapter Four Decision Analysis and the Social Control of Technology; Transitions to 'Modernity'; The Rise and Fall of Technological Decision Analysis; The Beginnings of Modern Safety Science; Safety Expertise as Ideology.

Signs of DecayThe Environmentalist Critique; Heuristic Limitations and Environmentalist Dissent; Conclusion; Chapter Five International Crises and Precarious Global Systems; Predecessors: Retrospective Decision Analysis; Crises and Diplomatic History; Arms Races and Defence Expenditure; Alliances and Wars; Economic Crises; Pax Americana and Prospective Decision Analysis; Systems Theory and Global Risk Management; Systems Thinking; Global Modelling; Conclusion; Chapter Six Macrosociological Dualities of Risk: Structural Inequality and Risk Society; Structural Inequality; Dependency Theory.

Risk SocietyConclusion; Bibliography; Index; About the Authors.

Over a period of several centuries, the academic study of risk has evolved as a distinct body of thought, which continues to influence conceptual developments in fields such as economics, management, politics and sociology. However, few scholarly works have given a chronological account of cultural and intellectual trends relating to the understanding and analysis of risks. Risk: A Study of its Origins, History and Politics aims to fill this gap by providing a detailed study of key turning points in the evolution of society's understanding of risk. Using a wide range of primary and secondary m.

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