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O'Malley, P. (1992). Risk, power and crime prevention. Economy and society, 21(3), 252-275.‏

Abstract:

This paper addresses the development of post-disciplinary ‘actuarial’ or risk-based technologies of power. Arguing against models which focus on increased efficiency as an evolutionary criterion for emerging technologies of power, it suggests that such technologies' place and form are largely determined by the nature and fortunes of political programs with which they are aligned. Thus the rise of neo-conservatism and related programs have extensively modified and curtailed programs based on risk models, and expanded those based on punishment and discipline. The paper examines the nature of situational crime prevention in the light of these ideas, and moves on to consider certain broader theoretical implications.

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O’Malley, P. (2004). Risk, uncertainty and governance. Glasshouse, London.‏

Abstract:

"Both risk and uncertainly are neo-liberal concepts, which can be viewed as complementary techniques for governing diverse aspects of life, rather than natural states of things. This new book examines the way these constructs govern the production of wealth through 'uncertain' speculation and 'calculable' investment formulae. The way in which risk and uncertainty govern the minimization of harms through insurance and through the uncertain practices of 'reasonable foresight' is also discussed."

"This governance of the future has a past, which is equally the concern of this book. It looks at the way these same techniques were historically forged out of moral and social beliefs about how to govern properly. Also analyzed is how, during this process, ideas such as 'contract' and distinctions between insurance and gambling were invented to order to 'properly' govern the risky and uncertain future."--Jacket.

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Power, M. (2007). Organized uncertainty: Designing a world of risk management. Oxford University Press on Demand.‏

Abstract:

Since the mid-1990s risk management has undergone a dramatic expansion in its reach and significance, being transformed from an aspect of management control to become a benchmark of good governance for banks, hospitals, schools, charities, and many other organizations. Numerous standards for risk management practice have been produced by a variety of transnational organizations. While these many designs and blueprints are accompanied by ideals of enterprise, value production, and good governance, it is argued that the rise of risk management has also coincided with an intensification of auditing and control processes. The legalization and bureaucratization of organizational life has increased because risk management has created new demands for proof and evidence of action. In turn, these demands have generated new risks to reputation. In short, this important book traces the rise of the managerial concept of risk and the different logics and values which underpin it, showing that it has much less to do with real dangers and opportunities than might be thought, and more to do with organizational accountability and legitimacy.

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Rapp, R. (1995). Risky business: genetic counseling in a shifting world. Articulating hidden histories: exploring the influence of Eric R. Wolf, 175-89.‏

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Abstract:

Since the mid-1990s risk management has undergone a dramatic expansion in its reach and significance, being transformed from an aspect of management control to become a benchmark of good governance for banks, hospitals, schools, charities, and many other organizations. Numerous standards for risk management practice have been produced by a variety of transnational organizations. While these many designs and blueprints are accompanied by ideals of enterprise, value production, and good governance, it is argued that the rise of risk management has also coincided with an intensification of auditing and control processes. The legalization and bureaucratization of organizational life has increased because risk management has created new demands for proof and evidence of action. In turn, these demands have generated new risks to reputation. In short, this important book traces the rise of the managerial concept of risk and the different logics and values which underpin it, showing that it has much less to do with real dangers and opportunities than might be thought, and more to do with organizational accountability and legitimacy.

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Revet, S., & Langumier, J. (Eds.). (2015). Governing disasters: beyond risk culture. Springer.‏

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Based on extensive ethnographic and historical research conducted in diverse field locations, this volume offers an acute analysis of how actors at local, national, and international levels govern disasters; it examines the political issues at stake that often go unaddressed and demonstrates that victims of disaster do not remain passive.

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Rose, N. (1996). Psychiatry as a political science: advanced liberalism and the administration of risk. History of the human sciences, 9(2), 1-23.‏

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Samimian-Darash, L., & Rabinow, P. (Eds.). (2015). Modes of uncertainty: Anthropological cases. University of Chicago Press.‏

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Modes of Uncertainty offers groundbreaking ways of thinking about danger, risk, and uncertainty from an analytical and anthropological perspective. Our world, the contributors show, is increasingly populated by forms, practices, and events whose uncertainty cannot be reduced to risk—and thus it is vital to distinguish between the two. Drawing the lines between them, they argue that the study of uncertainty should not focus solely on the appearance of new risks and dangers—which no doubt abound—but also on how uncertainty itself should be defined, and what the implications might be for policy and government.

Organizing contributions from various anthropological subfields—including economics, business, security, humanitarianism, health, and environment—Limor Samimian-Darash and Paul Rabinow offer new tools with which to consider uncertainty, its management, and the differing modes of subjectivity appropriate to it. Taking up policies and experiences as objects of research and analysis, the essays here seek a rigorous inquiry into a sound conceptualization of uncertainty in order to better confront contemporary problems. Ultimately, they open the way for a participatory anthropology that asks crucial questions about our contemporary state.

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Van Munster, R., Aradau, C., & Lobo-Guerrero, L. (2008). Security, Technologies of Risk, and the Political: Guest Editors' Introduction. Security Dialogue, 39(2&3), 157-154.‏

Abstract:

From natural disasters and terrorism to health and finance, risk is now everywhere. While risk had long been a problem of thought, from antiquity to modernity (Maso, 2007), its relation to security and politics has now encountered renewed interest. From anthropology and criminology to cultural studies and sociology, the problem of risk has been rendered as the signifier of our present condition (Beck, 1992; Douglas & Wildavsky, 1982;Luhmann, 1991; Foucault, 2007). But, as risks come to constitute more and more areas of social and political life, it is necessary to ask ourselves, echoing Michel Foucault (1997), what difference today introduces with respect to yesterday.

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Wynne, B. (1987). Risk management and hazardous waste: Implementation and the dialectics of credibility. Springer-Verlag.‏

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The proper management of hazardous wastes has become a major environmental and economic problem. Local opposition to siting of new treatment and disposal facilities has amplified international movements of wastes between different regulatory regimes. Inconsistent national regimes allow loopholes whose exploitation amplifies public concern and local opposition. Furthermore, inadequate understanding of public attitudes and political responses allows unpredictability to undermine industrial confidence and decision making. This IIASA book contributes original fieldwork from six countries and conceptual analysis aimed at improving understanding and the practical management of hazardous waste problems. It links the different forms of technical knowledge used in regulation with their institutional decision making context, and analyses the key question of public credibility in a systematic and novel way.

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Wynne, B. (2002). Risk and environment as legitimatory discourses of technology: reflexivity inside out?. Current sociology, 50(3), 459-477.‏

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Risk and environmental discourses have usually been regarded as critical, in the sense that they are the substantive focus of critical reflexive processes discussed under the rubric of the risk society, reflexive modernization and other theories of late-modern cultural politics and change. The forces of power which shape new technological trajectories have encountered some of their most effective criticism in the form of environmental risk critique and feminist critique. However, even environmental risk discourses have been fundamentally shaped by an assumption that any uncertainties which risk assessments might show will be resolvable by more science. The basic discourse of modern science and technology policy - that even if predictive control is not yet fully in our grasp, it soon will be - is not challenged by the cultural focus on risk. Indeed, the recent emphasis on rendering risk and regulatory science more accountable, inclusive and transparent actually diverts attention from the more difficult upstream arena of rendering innovation-oriented science more democratically accountable. In key respects, prevailing risk and environmental discourses can be seen to act by default as covers, and thus legitimators, of existing privileged forces driving technological innovation trajectories.

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