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Zusatztext " Communities at Risk is a very well-researched and persuasive book. It fills a niche in the study of risk management that is underexplored, and provides a nuanced accounting of how and why communities view and respond to university proposals to build NBL facilities." Informationen zum Autor Thomas D. Beamish is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Davis. He is the author of Silent Spill: The Organization of an Industrial Crisis . Klappentext Thomas D. Beamish is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Davis. He is the author of Silent Spill: The Organization of an Industrial Crisis . Zusammenfassung Community at Risk examines civic response to the federal government's plans to build biodefense labs at three universities following the Anthrax attacks in 2001. Thomas D. Beamish's account affirms the importance of local political dynamics in shaping public perceptions of risk and its management. Inhaltsverzeichnis Contents and Abstracts Introduction chapter abstract The Introduction develops the context within which the federal government's biodefense plans emerged and on which they were justified, including 9/11, the anthrax attacks, and the successive menace presented by West Nile virus, SARS, and avian influenza and most recently Ebola. After discussing the context and moral panic that ensued over terrorism, which were used to justify the new federal biodefense agenda, the Introduction then turns to local manifestations of those plans and responses to them–the community cases whose civic responses are comparatively explored in Community at Risk. The Introduction then develops key terms and concepts that are relied on to investigate and understand the community cases as well as the research strategy deployed to gather relevant data, analyze it, and draw conclusions. The Introduction ends with a brief summary of how the book is organized by chapter. 1 Conceptual Footings of Risk and Governance chapter abstract Chapter 1 explains the theoretical backdrop and analytical framework that organize the book's analysis. The chapter begins by outlining contemporary conditions in risk society where societal relations among civil society, government, and industry have been transformed in the twenty-first-century United States. In this context, risk and its management at the individual, local, and national levels have become the predominant concerns and bases for "risk dispute." Chapter 1 also describes how previous scholarship has theorized risk management and risk perception, as well as civic and community engagement and risk dispute. The chapter ends with how Community at Risk contributes to this and related areas of research. 2 Risk Communication, Local Civics, and Discourse chapter abstract Chapter 2 sets up the analysis pursued in subsequent chapters. It does so through a focus on the "risk communication" strategies deployed by local universities that sought to secure funding and support for their bids for an NBL. It was in those strategies that the local civic dialogue began in each civic and community context. It is in part the great similarity in risk communication strategies, coupled with variable local response, that makes comparing them so informative. Chapter 2 provides an important justification for the book...
