Citation

Ungar S. Br. J. Sociol. 2001; 52(2): 271-291.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2001, London School of Economics and Political Science, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1080/00071310120044980

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper compares moral panic with the potential political catastrophes of a risk society. The aim of the comparison is threefold: 1. to establish the position of risk society threats alongside more conventional moral panics; 2. to examine the conceptual shifts that accompany the new types of threats; and 3. to outline the changing research agenda. The paper suggests that as new sites of social anxiety have emerged around environmental, nuclear, chemical and medical threats, the questions motivating moral panic research have lost much of their utility. Conceptually, it examines how the roulette dynamics of the risk society accidents expose hidden institutional violations that redound into ?hot potatoes? that are passed among and fumbled by various actors. Changing conceptions of folk devils, claims making activities, and of a safety are also discussed.

Keywords

accident; disproportionality; Moral panic; risk society; social anxiety; social constructionism