Abstract
In this Call for Papers we invite risk researchers to submit articles for a special issue of Health, Risk & Society scheduled for publication in 2017. The special issue will focus on The Practice and Experience of Risk Work and will bring together articles which develop theoretical understandings of the experiences and practices of various front-line practitioners who are required to interpret and manage risk within their everyday work. The deadline for submission is 30 November 2016.
Special issue editors: Patrick Brown (University of Amsterdam) and Nicola Gale (University of Birmingham)
Call for papers
This special issue, to be published in 2017, aims to bring together articles which develop theoretical understandings of the experiences and practices of various front-line practitioners who are required to interpret and manage risk within their everyday work.
While a significant body of literature regarding the nature of street-level work amidst uncertainty already exists – within political science, sociology, policy studies and beyond – there are somewhat fewer studies considering the specific practices by which risk knowledge is handled and interpreted in everyday work or, moreover, of the meanings and experiences of risk workers. Where the interpretation, presentation and management of risk is studied (from our reading, Horlick-Jones, Citation2005 appears to be the only theorist to use the term ‘risk work’), the focus tends to be placed upon the organisational, discursive and/or policy dynamics (Castel, Citation1991; Horlick-Jones, Citation2005; Mishra & Graham, Citation2012), or on the power dynamics associated with risk and their varied and sometimes unintended effects in re-shaping patients’ and publics’ subjectivities (Davison et al., Citation1991; Järvinen, Citation2012; Lupton & Tulloch, Citation2002; Petersen, Citation1997).
Much less attention has been devoted to how the work of interpreting, managing and/or communicating/translating risk is pragmatically negotiated amid a host of relation, professional and organisational dynamics (how risk work ‘gets done’ c.f. Horlick-Jones, Citation2005) and, moreover, of the everyday lived experiences and conditions of work.
Central to these pragmatic practices and experiences (as is apparent in our own research and a small number of studies already in existence – e.g. Warner & Gabe, Citation2004) appear to be a range of tensions which are characteristic of risk work. These tensions may emerge out of the limited and sometimes contradictory knowledge-bases on which the ‘risks’ which inform everyday work are inferred (Gale, Greenfield, Gill, Gutridge, & Marshall, Citation2011; Maconachie & Lewendon, Citation2004), the difficulties in applying probabilistic information regarding large populations within advice given to individuals (see Heyman, Alaszewski, & Brown, Citation2013), and balancing the need to intervene (through communication or other forms of risk ‘minimisation’) with the need to maintain positive trusting relations with one’s client group (Brown & Calnan, Citation2013). The organisational context, alongside the professional/working identities of those carrying out risk work, will bear importantly on how these tensions are experienced and negotiated.
We would very much welcome articles which address these and related themes with the aim of developing theory around risk work. While we are chiefly interested in research carried out within health and social care contexts, we will also consider empirical and theoretical studies regarding other contexts where ‘risk work’ is practised at the border (or street-level – Lipsky, Citation1980) between large organisations and those outside the organisation – be they patients, service-users, clients, customers or wider ‘publics’. One important development within various European welfare states is the rise of para-professionals – lay health workers and peer support in the management of risk – and we would encourage any papers that explore whether the rise of risk work is resulting in a reconfiguration of existing professions through the co-option of new domains of practice, or whether it is producing a new group of health care workers to meet this need.
Authors are encouraged to contact the special issue editors beforehand to discuss the suitability and focus of their article submission. The editors are happy to offer advice and to look at draft outlines of potential articles. You can email either Patrick Brown ([email protected]) or Nicola Gale ([email protected]).
The deadline for submission is 30 November 2016. Submission should take place through the Health, Risk & Society Manuscript Central online platform and authors should pay close attention to the instructions for authors when preparing their manuscript – http://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?journalCode=chrs20&page=instructions#.VVxksZU9LIU.
If you are unfamiliar with the journal, then you should read the Editor’s advice which provides clear and useful information on the scope of the journal and its house style – http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/authors/CHRS-Editor-Advice.pdf
References
- Brown, P., & Calnan, M. (2013). Trust as a means of bridging the management of risk and the meeting of need: A case study in mental health service provision. Social Policy & Administration, 47(3), 242–261. doi:10.1111/spol.2013.47.issue-3
- Castel, R. (1991). From dangerousness to risk. In G. Burchell, C. Gordon, & P. Miller (Eds.), The Foucault Effect: Studies in governmentality (pp. 281–298). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
- Davison, C., Smith, G. D., & Frankel, S. (1991). Lay epidemiology and the prevention paradox: The implications of coronary candidacy for health education. Sociology of Health & Illness, 13(1), 1–19. doi:10.1111/shil.1991.13.issue-1
- Gale, N. K., Greenfield, S., Gill, P., Gutridge, K., & Marshall, T. (2011). Patient and general practitioner attitudes to taking medication to prevent cardiovascular disease after receiving detailed information on risks and benefits of treatment: A qualitative study. BMC Family Practice, 12, 59. doi:10.1186/1471-2296-12-59
- Heyman, B., Alaszewski, A., & Brown, P. (2013). Probabilistic thinking and health risks: An editorial. Health, Risk & Society, 15(1), 1–11. doi:10.1080/13698575.2013.756262
- Horlick-Jones, T. (2005). On ‘risk work’: Professional discourse, accountability, and everyday action. Health, Risk & Society, 7(3), 293–307. doi:10.1080/13698570500229820
- Järvinen, M. (2012). A will to health? Drinking, risk and social class. Health, Risk & Society, 14(3), 241–256. doi:10.1080/13698575.2012.662632
- Lipsky, M. (1980). Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the individual in public services. New York, NY: Russel Sage.
- Lupton, D., & Tulloch, J. (2002). ‘Risk is part of your life’: Risk epistemologies among a group of Australians. Sociology, 36, 317–334. doi:10.1177/0038038502036002005
- Maconachie, M., & Lewendon, G. (2004). Immunising children in primary care in the UK-what are the concerns of principal immunisers? Health Education Journal, 63(1), 40–49. doi:10.1177/001789690406300108
- Mishra, A., & Graham, J. (2012). Risk, choice and the ‘girl vaccine’: Unpacking human papillomavirus (HPV) immunisation. Health, Risk & Society, 14(1), 57–69. doi:10.1080/13698575.2011.641524
- Warner, J., & Gabe, J. (2004). Risk and liminality in mental health social work. Health, Risk & Society, 6(4), 387–399.
- Petersen, A. (1997). Risk, governance and the new public health. In A. Petersen & R. Bunton (Eds.), Foucault, health and medicine (pp. 189–206). London: Routledge.