Risk is an important but under-investigated feature of organizations in Late Modernity. This paper introduces the Special Issue on Organizations and Risk in Late Modernity. The rationale for the special issue is discussed. An overview of important approaches to risk research and organizations is provided to frame the special issue. These approaches include the cognitive science approach, which takes a positivist perspective and assumes that risks are objective and knowable. This view is contrasted with socio-cultural theories based in work by Mary Douglas, Ulrich Beck, Anthony Giddens and Michel Foucault. Charles Perrow's organizational theory of the production of risk and accidents due to interactive complexity, and Karl Weick's theory of risk sensemaking, are then discussed. The paper then reviews the contributions of papers in the special issue and outlines issues for future research on risk and organizations.

This article presents findings of a questionnaire and an interview survey on the perceived importance of chartist/technical and fundamental analysis among foreign exchange traders and financial journalists in Frankfurt, London, Vienna, and Zurich. Results confirm that most traders use both forecasting approaches, and that the shorter the forecasting horizon, the more important chartist/technical analysis is. Financial journalists put more emphasis on fundamental analysis than do foreign exchange traders. Results indicate that the importance of chartism may have increased over the last decade. Regarding the use of chartist/technical and fundamental analysis on seven forecasting horizons, four distinct clusters of traders can be identified. Forecasting styles and the overall importance attached to fundamental versus chartist/technical analysis vary across different trading locations. Foreign exchange traders mention a series of psychological motives and consequences of the use of chartism.

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