ABSTRACT
In this article, we deal with a specific aspect of expert talk, namely health care professionals (doctors, nurses, midwives) talking about risks: risks of contracting diseases, risks of having a disabled baby, and risks involved in specific types of medication or medical treatments. Drawing on data from varied health care contexts, we explore different modes of risk discourse. There appear to be quite distinct ways in which the expert role in the specific activity type encourages the incumbent to orient explicitly or implicitly either to scientific risk formulation or to everyday risk perception.
