This 1999 book presents a variety of exciting perspectives on the perception of risk and the strategies that people adopt to cope with it. Using the framework of recent social and cultural theory, it reflects the fact that risk has become integral to contemporary understandings of selfhood, the body and social relations, and is central to the work of writers such as Douglas, Beck, Giddens and the Foucauldian theorists. The contributors are all leading scholars in the fields of sociology, cultural and media studies and cultural anthropology. Combining empirical analyses with metatheoretical critiques, they tackle an unusually diverse range of topics including drug use, risk in the workplace, fear of crime and the media, risk and pregnant embodiment, the social construction of danger in childhood, anxieties about national identity, the governmental uses of risk and the relationship between risk phenomena and social order.

In this lively and engaging introduction to one of today's major sociocultural concepts, Deborah Lupton examines why risk has come to such prominence recently.

Risk and Everyday Life examines how people respond to, experience and think about risk as part of their everyday lives. Bringing together original empirical research and sociocultural theory, the authors examine how people define risk and what risks they see as affecting them, for example in relation to immigration, employment and family life. They emphasise the need to take account of the cultural dimensions of risk and risk-taking to understand how risk is experienced as part of everyday life and consider the influence that gender, social class, ethnicity, sexual orientation, occupation, geographical location and nationality have on our perceptions and experience of risk. Drawing on the work of key theorists - Ulrich Beck, Scott Lash, and Mary Douglas - the authors examine and critique theories of risk in the light of their own research and presents case studies which show how notions of risk interact with day-to-day concerns.

Risk (second edition) is a fully revised and expanded update of a highly-cited, influential and well-known book. It reviews the three major approaches to risk in social and cultural theory, devoting a chapter to each one. These approaches were first identified and described by Deborah Lupton in the original edition and have since become widely used as a categorisation of risk perspectives. The first draws upon the work of Mary Douglas to articulate the ‘cultural/symbolic’ perspective on risk. The second approach is that of the ‘risk society’ perspective, based on the writings of Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens. The third approach explored here is that of the ‘governmentality’ perspective, which builds on Michel Foucault’s work. Other chapters examine in detail the relationship between concepts of risk and concepts of selfhood and the body, the notion of Otherness and how this influences the ways in which people respond to and think about risk, and the pleasures of voluntary risk-taking, including discussion of edgework. This new edition examines these themes in relation to the newly emerging threats of the twenty-first century, such as climate change, extreme weather events, terrorism and global financial crises. It will appeal to students and scholars throughout the social sciences and humanities.

This textbook offers a new approach to understanding social theory. Framed around paired theoretical perspectives on a series of sociological problems, the book shows how distinctive viewpoints shed light on different facets of social phenomena. The book includes sociology’s "founding fathers", major 20th-century thinkers and recent voices such as Butler and Zizek. Philosophically grounded and focused on interpretation and analysis, the book provides a clear understanding of theory’s scope while developing students’ skills in evaluating, applying and comparing theories.

The Routledge Handbook of Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Development is the first comprehensive overview of the field of sociocultural second language acquisition (SLA). In 35 chapters, each written by an expert in the area, this book offers perspectives on both the theoretical and practical sides of the field. This Handbook covers a broad range of topics, divided into several major sections, including: concepts and principles as related to second language development; concept-based instruction; dynamic assessment and other assessment based on sociocultural theory (SCT); literacy and content-based language teaching; bilingual/multilingual education; SCT and technology; and teacher education. This is the ideal resource for graduate students and researchers working in the areas of SLA and second language development.

How do our everyday actions shape and transform the world economy? This volume of original essays argues that current scholarship in international political economy (IPE) is too highly focused on powerful states and large international institutions. The contributors examine specific forms of 'everyday' actions to demonstrate how small-scale actors and their decisions can shape the global economy. They analyse a range of seemingly ordinary or subordinate actors, including peasants, working classes and trade unions, lower-middle and middle classes, female migrant labourers and Eastern diasporas, and examine how they have agency in transforming their political and economic environments. This book offers a novel way of thinking about everyday forms of change across a range of topical issues including globalisation, international finance, trade, taxation, consumerism, labour rights and regimes. It will appeal to students and scholars of politics, international relations, political economy and sociology.