Reframing risk: How risk discourses are used by Vaccine Critical groups in the UK

This book covers a wide range of topics but all are linked to the themes of health, risk and vulnerability. The focus of this chapter is vaccination, and more specifically organized parental resistance to mass childhood vaccination in the UK. Drawing on empirical data, the main aim of the chapter is to investigate how risk is constructed by ‘Vaccine Critical groups’ (Hobson-West 2005). I argue that risk is constructed in several ways and that these combine to challenge the dominant vaccination discourse. Before proceeding, some introductory points are necessary in order to clarify how the topic relates to the broader themes of the book.