Risk and Space: Risk Perception and Risk Normalization

Regular session.

Times of multiple crises revealed spatially defined disparities in risk perceptions. Natural disasters, armed conflicts, outbreaks of diseases are not only delineated spatially in terms of specific geographic locations, but also show the importance of proximity for the public risk perception.

This session invites papers presenting empirical studies and methodological innovations related to the spatial dimension of risk perception. Spatial analysis of risk perception in sociological research covers a broad range of topics, including but not limited to the environmental, technological, geopolitical, criminological and else. Spatial analysis of risk perception remains promising, yet underdeveloped area of sociological research. It encompasses the paradoxes of risk normalization in the areas of high-risk exposure (for example, living near nuclear facilities), the role of place attachment in the disaster response (for example, refusal to evacuate from war zones, or flooded areas); the inadequacies in the public estimation of locally relevant risks.

We invite submissions to discuss variety of questions, related to spatial determinants of risk perceptions. For example: How global risks are spatially localized and contextualized in risk perceptions? How proximity to disaster and conflict areas determines the level of concern? How public perceptions of spatial boundaries of risks are coinciding with realities of hazards? How the sense of belonging to the place plays a role of risk normalization both in everyday practices and in the case of crises and disasters?