750
Author Meets Critics: Understanding Risk Taking by J. Zinn
Abstract Submissions Closed
TG04 Sociology of Risk and Uncertainty (host committee)
Language: English
Session Type: Oral
Invited Session
Understanding Risk-taking by Jens Zinn (2020, Palgrave).
The book develops the meaning of risk-taking historically, outlines disciplinary differences in the notion of risk before positioning risk-taking as a contested activity through which one relates to the natural and/or social environment. It distinguishes risk-taking as an active engagement with one’s context from risk behaviour and voluntary risk-taking. Based on the growing body of qualitative research on risk-taking it moves on by developing the conceptual core which distinguishes three different rationales, when risk-taking is an end in itself, a means to and end and a response to vulnerability. These are related to different degrees of agency which are not only linked to one’s social position but could become a resource to change one’s life and challenge social expectations. Risk-taking rationales are connected to different dimensions such as skills/capacity to take risks, social identity/recognition and ontological security/basic needs.
In the remaining chapters the book illustrates how risk-taking is influenced by learning to take risks, the routinisation and institutional normalization of risk-taking. It shows how identity work is involved and how risk-taking in everyday life is linked to one’s milieu, everyday practices and online communities. Furthermore, it shows how risk-taking is shaped by socio-structural forces, organizations and biographical experiences in changing social contexts. The chapter on responsibilisation turns to how risk-taking and blame combines for the institutional management of social problems. Finally, the book suggests that rational, in-between and non-rational approaches are used such as evidence, trust, and hope to allow reasonably taking risk.