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Risk Perceptions and Responses,
and Transitions in the Life Course
The issue of risk has come to pervade many dimensions
of contemporary life, from global terrorism to personal health.
A facet of this is the growing interest in the social sciences and
social policy in understanding people's perceptions of and responses
to risk in everyday life, such as how people make decisions about
careers, or manage their lives following a serious illness.
A dominant theme in current sociological theory
is that social change results in a society which is increasingly
risk-orientated. For example, one school of thought suggests that
as society becomes more 'individualised', more 'traditional' life-courses
and lifestyles fall away. Without these traditional patterns, people
are forced to make more decisions about how to live their lives.
As life-planning becomes a more conscious process, people become
more conscious about the risks (of making 'wrong' decisions). At
the same time, the decline of tradition means that traditional solidarities
and communities also erode. This means both that personal support
networks weaken, and that risks are experienced on an individual
basis rather than collectively by a community.
This - alongside other, contrasting theses - is
part of the sociological theory of risk in which this project is
anchored. The project seeks to test the hypothesis that changing
lifestyles and different life cycle stages affect risk perceptions
and responses to risk. It also questions the extent to which social
change results in intergenerational discontinuities in people's
risk perceptions and responses, and the extent to which risk perceptions
and responses are 'socialised' and inherited between generations
within families. As such, the project represents an innovative attempt
to apply empirical research to issues almost exclusively only considered
in theory.
This project is part of the ESRC-funded research
network, Social Contexts and Responses to Risk. The project's aims
are to explore:
- individuals' and families' responses to, and
perceptions and experiences of risk events, and the consequences
of risk events;
- how responses to risk might change at different
points in people's lives and in different generations; and
- the extent to which responses to risk draw
on, and are shaped by, personal networks and public institutions.
The research is in two parts. First, a survey has
been conducted with 1400 respondents. This catalogues perceptions
and experiences of a range of potential risk events, ranging from
changing employment and family responsibilities, through becoming
seriously ill, to encountering poor customer services. Data has
been gathered about individuals and their families, and about the
support networks and agencies used to mediate experiences of risk.
Analysis of the survey reveals that two-thirds of the
sample experienced at least one risk event in the previous two years,
and that respondents with experience of risk events in the past
were more likely (than those without experience) to worry about
such events in the future.
The second part of the research is a qualitative
study of 30 families, involving an interview with a parent and adult
son/daughter in each family. Interviews investigates participants'
perceptions, and past and present responses to career-associated
and other risks. This allows the study to consider the influence
and 'transfer' of perceptions across family generations.
Sponsor
Economic and Social
Research Council
Project team
Noel Smith, Lynne
Cox, Abigail Davis and Rebecca Hand (CRSP) Line Nyhagen Predelli (Department of Social Sciences) and Andreas Cebulla (National
Centre for Social Research).
The project commenced in November 2003 with a projected
completion date of June 2008.
This is part of the ESRC-funded research network,
Social Contexts and Responses to Risk (SCARR). The SCARR website
is www.kent.ac.uk/scarr/
Publications
Cebulla, A. (2007) 'Class or Individual? A Test of the Nature of Risk Perceptions and the Individualisation Thesis of Risk Society Theory', Journal of Risk Research, Vol. 10, No. 2, 129-148.
Nyhagen Predelli, L. (2007) 'Social Contexts and Risk Perceptions: The impact of illness", in Teno Times, No. 58, March 2007.
Smith, N., Cebulla, A., Cox, L. and Davis, A. (2006) 'Risk Perception and the Presentation of Self: Reflections from Fieldwork on Risk', Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 7(1), Art.
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