Can we know the risks we face, now or in the future? No, we cannot; but yes, we must act as if we do. Some dangers are unknown; others are known, but not by us because no one person can know everything. Most people cannot be aware of most dangers at most times. Hence, no one can calculate precisely the total risk to be faced. How, then, do people decide which risks to take and which to ignore? On what basis are certain dangers guarded against and others relegated to secondary status? This book explores how we decide what risks to take and which to ignore, both as individuals and as a culture.

Close textual analysis explores the culture of risk in our country's early days

This unique comparative study looks at efforts to regulate carcinogenic chemicals in several Western democracies, including the United States, and finds marked national differences in how conflicting scientific interpretations and competing political interests are resolved. Whether risk issues are referred to expert committees without public debate or debated openly in a variety of forums, patterns of interaction among experts, policy makers, and the public reflect fundamental features of each country's political culture. "A provocative argument....Poses interesting questions for the sociology of science, especially science produced for public debate."—Contemporary Sociology A Volume in the Russell Sage Foundation's Social Science Frontiers Series

Risk Culture is a practical volume devoted to the qualitative aspects of risk management, including those that should be firmly embedded in the corporate culture. Through descriptions, examples and case studies, the book analyzes weak and strong cultures and proposes a series of structural and behavioral actions to strengthen a company's culture.

This book explores risk culture in banks following the financial crisis. It analyses the role of national and institutional risk culture, market competitiveness, organisational systems and institutional practices that led to a weakening of risk culture in financial institutions leading up to the financial crisis. It addresses how to assess and measure risk culture, and analyse the impact on performance and reputation. Finally it explores the impact of regulation and a variety of tools that can be applied from the board down to promote a healthy risk culture in the governance of financial institutions internal controls and risk culture in banks.

Argues that risk culture is driven by institutional forces - not "bad apples," as prevailing opinion holds.

AcknowledgmentsList of Contributors1. Embracing RiskTom Baker and Jonathan SimonPart One: Toward a Sociology of Insurance and Risk2 Risk, Insurance, and the Social Construction of ResponsibilityTom Baker3 Beyond Moral Hazard: Insurance as Moral OpportunityDeborah Stone4 Embracing Fatality through Life Insurance in Eighteenth-Century EnglandGeoffrey Clark5 Imagining Insurance: Risk, Thrift, and Life Insurance in BritainPat O'Malley6 Insuring More, Ensuring Less: The Costs and Benefits of Private Regulation through InsuranceCarol A. Heimer7 Rhetoric of Risk and the Redistribution of Social InsuranceMartha McCluskeyPart Two: Risk(s) beyond Insurance8 Taking Risks: Extreme Sports and the Embrace of Risk in Advanced Liberal SocietiesJonathan Simon9 At Risk of MadnessNikolas Rose10 The Policing of RiskRichard V. Ericson and Kevin D. Haggerty11 The Return of Descartes's Malicious Demon: An Outline of a Philosophy of PrecautionFrancois Ewald (translated by Stephen Utz)Index Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.