Cultural theory of risk

Ecocriticism has been at the forefront of introducing risk theory and risk research to literary and cultural studies. The essay surveys this more recent trend in ecocritical scholarship, which began with the new millennium and has focused on the participation of fictional texts in various environmental risk discourses. The study of risk fiction draws our attention to cultural moments of uncertainty, threat, and instability, to risk scenarios both local and planetary-not least the risk scenarios of the Anthropocene in which species consciousness and 'planetariness' have become central issues. The essay reviews how key publications have shed light on the cultural and literary historical relevance of environmental risk and on various issues that are central to ecocriticism. It points out how they have sharpened our sense of both the spatial and temporal dimensions of environmental risk and environmental crisis, introduced new categories of ecocritical analysis, contributed to clarifying some of the field's major conceptual premises, and added a new approach to genre discussions, in particular relating to fiction engaging with global anthropogenic climate change.

Risk awareness has become a cultural force that permeates contemporary societies. The need to deal with a future that is marked by uncertainty, contingency, and insecurity is frequently expressed in risk discourse. Environmental risks, often closely related to technological risks, have been at the heart of contemporary risk discourses, including risk theory and risk research in the social sciences. This essay focuses on a part of environmental risk discourse that has largely been neglected in risk theory and risk research: fictional texts. By exploring the contribution of a number of U.S. American novels to the risk discourse of global, anthropogenic climate change it demonstrates that fictional texts play an important role in risk discourse and risk communication.

ABSTRACT This study examined the magnitude of the associations between four worldview dimensions based on Douglas and Wildavsky’s (1982) cultural theory of risk (egalitarianism, individualism, hierarchism and fatalism) and environmental risk perceptions. A meta-analysis of 67 effect sizes from a pooled sample of 15,660 respondents revealed that individuals who scored higher on egalitarianism perceived more environmental risks (r = .25), whereas individuals who scored higher on hierarchism and individualism perceived fewer environmental risks (r = -.18 and -.17, respectively). Fatalism and environmental risk perceptions were not significantly related (r = .03). Moderator analyses using an expanded set of 129 effect sizes found that effect sizes varied significantly as a function of hazard type, worldview measure, and study location. Our results are broadly consistent with cultural theory’s claim that cultural worldviews are potentially important determinants of environmental risk perceptions, although the magnitudes of these effects appear to be quite modest.