Promoting sociology in Australia
Facilitating sociology teaching and research
Enhancing the professional development of TASA members

Risk Societies

Aims and objectives:

Risk has become pervasive in public and interdisciplinary debate in recent decades. The group brings together a broad range of topics and levels of analysis which encompass issues such as the adaptation to climate change, the management of new diseases, and the introduction of new technologies and the response to international terror as well as the management of social risks and risk regulation in areas such as health, crime and youth. This also includes individual responses to risk in everyday life and risk communication by the media. However, in political decision making and societal management of risk and uncertainty critical sociological perspectives to risk are often neglected. The group aims to establish a sociological perspective to risk and uncertainty as part of an interdisciplinary discourse on societal risk management.

The group provides the context to bring together risk research from different approaches (cultural, risk society, governmentality, systems theory or edgework) and domains to fertilise further theoretical developments on risk within sociology.

Established

July 2009

Designated convenors of the group:

Associate Professor Jens O. Zinn, University of Melbourne, School of Social and Political Sciences, jzinn@unimelb.edu.au

Dr. Alphia Possamai-Inesedy, University of Western Sydney, alphia.possamai@uws.edu.au

Members of the group:

(1) Professor Joan Abbott-Chapman

(2) Professor Jack Barbalet

(3) Dr. Martina Boese

(4) Professor Mitchell Dean

(5) Associate Professor Michael Fine

(6) Associate Professor Fiona Haines

(7) Dr. Vaughan Higgins

(8) Dr. Peter Kelly

(9) Associate Professor Robert van Krieken

(10) Dr. Deborah Lupton

(11) Dr. Tim Marjoribanks

(12) Professor Alan Petersen

(13) Dr. Jocelyn Pixley

(14) Associate Professor Adam Possamai

(15) Dr. Alphia Possamai-Inesedy

(16) Kate Seear

(17) Dr. Samantha Thomas

(18) Professor Johanna Wyn

(19) Associate Professor Jens O. Zinn