Hood and the minor

Risk, uncertainty and policy: towards a social-dialectical understanding

“…We have already caught a glimpse of the influence of these wider beliefs and attitudes in terms of the accountability and legitimacy demands placed upon policy-making institutions. The need to maintain legitimacy within the public sphere may compel policy-makers to tackle certain social problems, increasingly though not solely framed as risks, which may have previously not been defined as problematic (Spector and Kitsuse 1973;Lodge and Hood 2002;Bröer et al 2014). The ability of certain actors and events to shape or set the agenda of public sphere discussions How to cite: Patrick R. Brown & Anna Olofsson (2014) Risk, uncertainty andpolicy: towards a social-dialectical understanding, Journal of Risk Research, 17:4, 425-434, DOI: 10.1080/13669877.2014 (Kasperson et al 1988;Kingdon 1994), accordingly become highly salient for how governmental policy-makers come to develop policy in relation to certain newly perceived 'risks'.…”