ABSTRACT
This section starts with the first essay I wrote on risk. ‘Environments at risk’, (Chapter 16, 1970). The late Aaron Wildavsky read it and immediately engaged me in an intense and exciting collaboration on risk and culture. He had already observed a discipline of risk analysis emerging and was looking out for a critical position to adopt. Since then risk studies have burgeoned into a huge and flourishing industry for policy analysts and health and safety engineers. I am glad to say that, thanks to the work of Wildavsky, Michael Thompson, Steve Rayner and others, a distinctively anthropological voice can be heard on the perception of risk and explanations of disaster.
