Health, Risk and Vulnerability

The concept of risk is one of the most suggestive terms for evoking the cultural character of our times and for defining the purpose of social research. Risk attitudes and behaviours are understood to comprise the dominant experience of culture, politics and society in our times.

Health, Risk and Vulnerability investigates the personal and political dimensions of health risk that structure everyday thought and action. In this innovative book, international contributors reflect upon the meaning and significance of risk across a broad range of social and institutional contexts, exploring current issues such as:



the ‘escalation of the medicalization of life’, involving the pathologization of normality and blurring of the divide between clinical and preventive medicine


the tendency for mental health service users to be regarded as representing a risk to others rather than being ‘at risk’ and vulnerable themselves


the development of health care systems to identify risk and prevent harm


women’s reactions to ‘high risk’ screening results during pregnancy and how they communicate with other women about risk


men and the use the internet to reconstruct their social and sexual identities


Charting new terrain in the sociology of health and risk, and focusing on the connections between them, Health, Risk and Vulnerability offers new perspectives on an important field of contemporary debate and provides an invaluable resource for students, teachers, researchers, and policy makers.

Alan Petersen is Professor of Sociology, School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University, Australia.

Iain Wilkinson is a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Kent where he teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses on the sociology of risk and social theory. He convenes the BSA study group on Risk & Society.

1. Health Risk and Vulnerability: An Introduction - Alan Petersen and Iain Wilkinson 2. Unlimited Medicalization? Risk and the Pathologization of Normality - John-Arne Skolbekken 3. Community Care, Risk and the Shifting Focus of Danger and Vulnerability in Mental Health - Joanne Warner 4. Governmentality and the Subpolitics of Teenage Sexual Risk Behaviour - Joost Van Loon 5. Restructuring Health Care: Developing Systems to Identify Risk and Prevent Harm - Andy Alaszewski and Kirstie Coxon 6. Ecological Validity and Risk Management in Forensic Mental Health Services - Jacqueline Daves, Paul Godin and Bob Heyman 7. Talking and Taking Risks: An Exploration of Women’s Perceptions of Antenatal Testing in Pregnancy - Dawn S. Jones 8. Constructing Virtual Selves: Men Risk and the Rehearsal of Sexual Identities - Anthony Pryce 9.Reframing Risk: How Risk Discourses are used by Vaccine Critical Groups in the UK - Pru Hobson-West