The cultural nature of risk: Can there be an anthropology of uncertainty?

Boholm, Åsa

doi:10.1080/0014184032000097722

Cited by 222 publications

(158 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Experiences of risk and loss are context dependent (e.g., Boholm 2003); salient aspects of life in MRV are limited livelihood opportunities and decadal processes of population decline (Karlsson and Bryceson 2015). This provides an explanation of why the decreased prospect of investment in overnight tourism in the area is seen as a serious outcome of erosion.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What we have lost and cannot become: societal outcomes of coastal erosion in southern Belize

Karlsson¹,

Oort²,

Romstad³

2015

E&S

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ABSTRACT. Countries in the Caribbean region, including Belize, are vulnerable to coastal erosion. Experts and scholars have assessed the effects of coastal erosion in the region in physical and economic terms, most often from a sectoral perspective. However, less attention has been directed to the localized and nonquantifiable effects of coastal erosion in the region. We address this research gap by presenting an empirical study of a village in southern Belize that has experienced significant coastal erosion since the mid-1980s. Drawing on interviews, a mapping exercise, and a literature review, we analyze how villagers are experiencing the impacts of coastal change, and what the resulting risks and losses mean for the socioeconomic stability of the village. We identify five categories of local values affected by coastal erosion, ranging from alteration of social activities to the loss of properties. We demonstrate that the totality of impacts bear consequences to the village's continued viability, which adds uncertainty to the lives of local residents.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What we have lost and cannot become: societal outcomes of coastal erosion in southern Belize

Karlsson¹,

Oort²,

Romstad³

2015

E&S

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“…to "How do people understand something as a risk? ", and on similar arguments developed other scholars of risk [57][58][59]. This constructivist perspective of risk, which focuses on how risk is constructed by the various actors, takes risk assessment as an inherently normative evaluation [32,57].…”

Section: Linkages Boundaries and Risk: Exploring The How And Why Of mentioning

confidence: 99%

Governance and Risk–Value Constructions in Closing Loops of Rare Earth Elements in Global Value Chains

2017

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This article addresses a research gap on the challenges-specifically risk and value-connected to realizing the potential for closing loops for rare earth elements (REE). We develop an analytical framework from conceptual elements of the global value chain (GVC) framework and the relational theory of risk to examine several empirical REE industry cases for loop closure. The aim of the paper is to identify how risk-value relationships are constructed by different actors as governance structures form in transactions prior to price setting and how these have impacts on the closure of REE loops. Often, REE loops are not closed, and we find that constructions of the risk-value relationship by industrial actors and by government agencies are unstable as they pursue different motivations, consequently hindering REE loop closure in GVCs. In light of this, we propose that governments mediate against the construction of risk-value relationships by facilitating information on the characteristics of end-of-life materials that qualify these for re-entry into loops.

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“…Conceptions of risk draw on knowledge, values, and concerns that are embedded in livelihood and imprinted individuals by social institutions, historical experience, and collective identity (Boholm 2003a(Boholm , 2003bCaplan 2000;Grätz 2009;Mairal 2003Mairal , 2008Sjölander-Lindqvist 2005;Stoffle and Arnold 2003;Stoffle and Minnis 2008). Far from being abstract and disembodied constructs, risk conceptions are associated with everyday practices and cultural assumptions that vary from group to group, place to place, and time to time (Shaw 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Valuation Practices for Risk Identification

Boholm

Corvellec²

2016

Riskwork

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This report uses a relational theory of risk within which risk is understood as a relationship between a risk object and an object at risk where the risk object threatens the value embedded in the object at risk. A case study of risk management in railway planning examined through a relational understanding of risk demonstrates how riskwork is conditioned by what is valued, how, and by whom. The report argues that riskwork originates in the versatile valuation practices that take place in organizations. Furthermore, it suggests that bringing such valuation practices under critical scrutiny opens up the possibility for a reflexive approach to risk management. Such a reflexive approach would take into account how risk identification is embedded in a particular organizational order.

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The cultural nature of risk: Can there be an anthropology of uncertainty?

Cited by 222 publications

References 7 publications

What we have lost and cannot become: societal outcomes of coastal erosion in southern Belize

What we have lost and cannot become: societal outcomes of coastal erosion in southern Belize

Governance and Risk–Value Constructions in Closing Loops of Rare Earth Elements in Global Value Chains

The Role of Valuation Practices for Risk Identification

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