Risk entanglement and the social relationality of risk

Abstract

Relational accounts of risk explain variation in risk perception through situated cognitions defining risk as a relationship between “risk objects” and “objects at risk”. We extend this approach to include not only the relational constitution of cognitive risk objects, but also of the different actors assessing risk. Risk in this perspective is relational because it establishes a link between two different cognitive objects and between two (or more) actors. We argue that this is the case when at least two actors refer to a common risk object while retaining distinct objects at risk. We call this a constellation of risk entanglement across actors. We illustrate our theoretical arguments using data from 68 qualitative interviews and ethnographic fieldwork in the German finance-state nexus. Our analyses indicate how risk entanglement affects and transforms the fundamental logics according to which both of these fields operate.