ABSTRACT
Ontologically, sociological theories of risk differ dramatically from technical and psychological framings. The main sticking point (ontological difference) between the former and the latter is whether a risk can be truly said to be ‘real’ and merely needs to be found by the assessor. This chapter discusses those theories that argue that risk is partially or totally socially constructed, invoking arguments from Ulrich Beck and his ‘World Risk Society’ thesis, Foucault’s ‘Governmentality’ and Douglas’ Cultural Worldviews. The difficulty of sociological concepts is that they are notoriously elusive in empirical evidence. This chapter provides a pathway to understanding these risk approaches in an easily accessible format that requires no background knowledge of sociology.
