The Social Amplification of Risk: Assessing 15 Years of Research and Theory

More than 15 years has elapsed since the introduction in 1988 of the social amplification of risk framework (SARF) by researchers from Clark University (Kasperson, Renn, Slovic and colleagues) and Decision Research (Slovic and colleagues). During that time, various researchers have enlisted the framework to complete a substantial number of empirical studies. All the while, the emergence of a much larger body of relevant knowledge has spawned a lively debate on aspects of the framework. In this chapter, we consider these developments, inquiring into refinements, critiques and extensions of the approach, the emergence of new issues, and the findings and hypothesis growing out of 15 years of empirical research.