Socio-Cultural and Multi-Disciplinary Perceptions of Risk

Literature Review

We certainly don’t want to review the history of risk but we do need to present a few basic definitions. The first point is that risk theories are multi-disciplinary (vanAsselt & Renn, 2011), covering a range of disciplines including economics, psychology, statistics, mathematics and philosophy, yet they are difficult to categorize since they integrate mathematics, statistics, and management science (Gigerenzer, 2002). “What is clear from this burgeoning body of research is that risk transcends a number of academic disciplines and also cuts across other boundaries– whether they are socio-technical, geopolitical, organizational, cultural, physical, or health related” (Smith & Fischbacher, 2009, p. 3).