Anxiety in a 'Risk' Society

by Iain Wilkinson

Few would dispute that we are living at a time of high anxiety and uncertainty in which many of us will experience a crisis of identity at some point or another. At the same time, news media provide us with a daily catalogue of disasters from around the globe to remind us that we inhabit a world of crisis, insecurity and hazard. Anxiety in a Risk Society :
looks at the problem of contemporary anxiety from a sociological perspective
highlights its significance for the ways we make sense of risk and uncertainty
argues that the relationship between anxiety and risk hinges on the nature of anxiety.
Iain Wilkinson believes that there is much for sociologists to learn from those who have made the condition of anxiety the focus of their life's work. By making anxiety the focus of sociological inquiry, a critical vantage point can be gained from which to attempt an answer to the question: Are we more anxious because we are more risk conscious? This is an original and thought-provoking contribution to the understanding of late modernity as a risk society.

176 pages, Hardcover

First published April 12, 2001