The making of the risk-centred society and the limits of social risk research

Abstract Despite the apparent triumph of social perspectives on risk, the predominant approach to risk is less social and contextual than is often supposed. A widespread acceptance of a constructionist approach is more formal than substantive. Risk ‘objects’ and events remain given and objectified in many accounts, at the same time as they have been subject to little critical empirical enquiry. Iconic risk events such as the BSE crisis and Chernobyl have shaped academic and policy responses to risk despite the gap between their putative and actual impacts. This editorial calls for a more interdisciplinary approach able to trace the historical evolution and changing character of risk perceptions that rigorously analyses and clearly distinguishes the scientific/technical, and socially and politically manufactured dimensions of risk.