ABSTRACT
Risk saturates everyday life. Our diets are shaped by our own knowledge of the risks associated with certain food and drinks, and our consumption choices are made from those already vetted by prior scientific risk assessments. If our children misbehave at school, they may be subjected to tests in case their behaviour aligns with risk profiles for pre-delinquency, cognitive abnormality or worse. Corporations, governments and institutions cannot be without a risk management plan, a matter often required by law. The environment has become something that is both a source of risk and ‘at risk’ from the effects of population and industrial growth. In many ways we are intruded upon and disciplined by risk regimes meant to protect us from future harms, and if we fail to buy in, we must suffer the consequences. If, for example, we fail to take precautions against ‘crime risks’ we may be labelled victims of our own carelessness; if we smoke and develop lung cancer, blame is clear because the risks are known. We often participate willingly in these regimes of risk because they promise, and often deliver, greater safety and security. Yet we buy in at a cost: we allow much of our daily lives to be delimited by considerations of risk that take into account futures that are unlikely to happen to the average person. Still, this defensive and negative side is only one aspect of the development of risk. An array of ‘positive’ and ‘productive’ risks has been made salient and available. Pension plans may now be linked with share market portfolios so that we can select the ‘level of risk’ that suits us; gambling has become a ‘leisure industry’ valued for the employment it creates and the tax revenues it generates; and extreme sports are becoming a popularized form of recreation through which we can fulfil ourselves rather than merely demonstrate foolhardiness.
