To Risk or Not to Risk? Uses and Limitations of Mary Douglas on Risk-Acceptability for Understanding Health and Safety at Work and Road Accidents

Abstract

The recent Greening of politics in the West has encouraged rapid development of research into both environmental hazards and risk perceptions among the public. There are also longstanding traditions of research into behaviour under risk in such disparate fields as superpower relations (Allison 1971), inter-country commercial transactions, the economics of uncertainty, and the study of natural disasters (Torry 1979). Relatively few sociologists or social anthropologists have contributed. A major exception is Mary Douglas (1982,1985,1987). This paper is an attempt to make use of her work and to tests its limits, in answering two empirical questions: How do managers and workers address workplace hazards? And, how do motorcyclists and drivers behave on the roads?

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“…In the mobility version individuals are assumed to adopt different cultural biases as they move between institutions. Similarly, Bellaby (1990) has suggested that 'Douglas was unable to explain why individuals might move from one risk culture to another,' presenting serious implications for developing methods to test the theory. It has also been suggested that Douglas was not clear about whether cultural groups should be classified in terms of group and grid on the basis of their own (emic) concepts or those of the analyst (etic) (Wight 1999).…”

“…Douglas' cultural theory is useful in that it demonstrates that judgements made about danger, pollution, and threat are dependent more upon a wider social context than individual design (Tansey and O'Riordan 1999). The emphasis is not only on how individuals think but also on how groups and institutions think and set boundaries (Bellaby 1990). Certain dangers that make sense to a particular culture, and are therefore selected for attention as a 'risk,' are based on that culture's shared values and concerns (Douglas 1992).…”

“…He concluded that perceptions of HIV risk are shaped in part by these men's partnership careers and occupational paths. Likewise, Bellaby (1990) has applied Douglas's theory to understand risk acceptability among managers and workers in the pottery industry and among motorcyclists and car drivers. Of particular interest is his focus on life course transitions and the way such transitions influence risk perceptions and behaviour.…”

“…The system of boundary maintenance ensures the purity of social contacts and the exclusion of people and objects that do not belong (Douglas 1966). Where boundaries are clear-cut, safe and familiar spaces appear inside the boundary, protecting the group from the dangers outside (Bellaby 1990). However, it is difficult to discriminate between danger and safety where an institution lacks boundaries (Bellaby 1990).…”

“…Where boundaries are clear-cut, safe and familiar spaces appear inside the boundary, protecting the group from the dangers outside (Bellaby 1990). However, it is difficult to discriminate between danger and safety where an institution lacks boundaries (Bellaby 1990). As Douglas and Calvez (1990) note, 'blaming procedures' support the organizing effort to control epidemics whereby the population is divided into those needing care and protection (the isolates) and those needing forcible detention (the individualists).…”