risk society

Risk is a popular topic in many sciences – in natural, medical, statistical, engineering, social, economic and legal disciplines. Yet, no single discipline can grasp the full meaning of risk. Investigating risk requires a multidisciplinary approach. The authors, coming from two very different disciplinary traditions, meet this challenge by building bridges between the engineering, the statistical and the social science perspectives. The book provides a comprehensive, accessible and concise guide to risk assessment, management and governance. A basic pillar for the book is the risk governance framework proposed by the International Risk Governance Council (IRGC). This framework offers a comprehensive means of integrating risk identification, assessment, management and communication. The authors develop and explain new insights and add substance to the various elements of the framework. The theoretical analysis is illustrated by several examples from different areas of applications.

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More than 30 leading scholars and finance practitioners discuss the theory and practice of using enterprise-risk management (ERM) to increase corporate values. ERM is the corporate-wide effort to manage the right-hand side of the balance sheet—a firm’s total liability structure-in ways that enable management to make the most of the firm’s assets. While typically working to stabilize cash flows, the primary aim of a well-designed risk management program is not to smooth corporate earnings, but to limit the possibility that surprise outcomes can threaten a company’s ability to fund its major investments and carry out its strategic plan. Contributors summarize the development and use of risk management products and their practical applications. Case studies involve Merck, British Petroleum, the American airline industry, and United Grain Growers, and the conclusion addresses a variety of topics that include the pricing and use of certain derivative securities, hybrid debt, and catastrophe bonds.

Contributors: Tom Aabo (Aarhus School of Business); Albéric Braas and Charles N. Bralver (Oliver, Wyman & Company); Keith C. Brown (University of Texas at Austin); David A. Carter (Oklahoma State University); Christopher L. Culp (University of Chicago); Neil A. Doherty (University of Pennsylvania); John R. S. Fraser (Hyrdo One, Inc.); Kenneth R. French (University of Chicago); Gerald D. Gay (Georgia State University); Jeremy Gold (Jeremy Gold Pensions); Scott E. Harrington (University of South Carolina); J. B. Heaton (Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott LLP); Joel Houston (University of Florida); Nick Hudson (Stern Stewart & Co.); Christopher James (University of Florida); A. John Kearney and Judy C. Lewent (Merck & Co., Inc.); Robert C. Merton and Lisa K. Meulbroek (Harvard Business School); Merton H. Miller (University of Chicago); Jouahn Nam (Pace University); Andrea M. P. Neves (CP Risk Management LLC); Brian W. Nocco (Nationwide Insurance); André F. Perold (Harvard Business School); S. Waite Rawls III (Continental Bank); Kenneth J. Risko (Willis Risk Solutions); Angelika Schöchlin (University of St. Gallen); Betty J. Simkins (Oklahoma State University); Donald J. Smith (Boston University); Clifford W. Smith Jr. (University of Rochester); Charles W. Smithson (Continental Bank); René M. Stulz (Ohio State University); D. S

All the articles that comprise this book were first published in the Journal of Applied Corporate Finance. Morgan Stanley’s ownership of the journal is a reflection of its commitment to identifying outstanding academic research and promoting its application in the practicing corporate and investment communities.

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This book provides an interdisciplinary and international characterization of the state of the art and science of risk analysis. Such an analysis is needed to ensure better management of choices concerning environmental, health and technology-based hazards that increasingly affect peoples’ lives on an international scale. Including chapters by many of the world’s leading risk researchers, this comprehensive work will provide insight into the scope of important social and technical issues that influence risks and their management.

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The information age has left few of us untouched; individuals and institutions alike have undergone radical transformations in the race to get the most out of new technologies. The police are no exception. Policing the Risk Society introduces us to a shocking new vision of police work in which information gathered by the police with surveillance and data collection technologies is brokered to other institutions.

Richard Ericson and Kevin Haggerty contend that the police have become information brokers to institutions, such as insurance companies and health and welfare organizations whose operations are based on a knowledge of risk. These institutions influence the ways in which police officers think and act. A critical review of existing research reveals the need to study police interaction with institutions as well as with individuals. These institutions are part of an emerging ‘risk society’ where knowledge of risk is used to control danger. The authors examine different aspects of police involvement: the use of surveillance technologies and the collection of data on securities, careers, and different social, ethnic, age, and gender groups. They conclude by looking at how police organizations have been forced to bureaucratize and to continually adapt rules, formats, and technologies of communication to meet external demands for knowledge of risk.

With this book, Ericson and Haggerty revolutionize the study of policing and, for the first time, provide concrete evidence of the central tenets of risk society theory. Their work will have a major impact not only on scholars in criminology, social theory, and communications, but on policing as well.

Awarded the 1998 Herbert Jacob Book Prize by its Committee of the Law and Society Association, University of Massachusetts.

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“The Fast and The Furious: Drivers, Speed Cameras and Control in a Risk Society” presents a sociological and criminological perspective critical to understanding the driver’s role at the centre of road safety interventions. Such an approach is, it is argued, as crucial to an understanding of attempts to reduce road crashes, deaths and injuries as approaching such questions from an engineering or educational perspective. The book offers an explanation for the continued debate about one road safety intervention – the speed camera – by situating that debate within contemporary literature about the ‘risk society’ (Beck, 1992) and more broadly understood experiences of risk faced on a daily basis by drivers. Rather than a focus on risk as something that can be objectively assessed, measured and managed separately from the social context in which it is encountered, it suggests that ‘risk’ is something that permeates this particular debate from every angle. The book achieves its aims by utilising sociological and criminological perspectives to investigate issues such as: the social context in which it is possible for drivers to reject official scientific expertise about crash causation and camera effectiveness; the self-defined ‘respectability’ of the population being problematised and its juxtaposition with a ‘proper’ police focus on ‘real criminals’; the reconceptualisation of law-breaking as risk-taking rather than inherently ‘wrong’ behaviour and its consequences for the enforcement of laws based on risk assessment; and, the experience of being controlled by technology and of receiving what is essentially ‘automated justice’. These and other issues are explored and suggested as illuminating of both the real concerns underpinning this debate and potentially instructive for future attempts to control risky behaviour both within and beyond a road safety context.

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This unique handbook presents both the theory and application of biomass combustion and co-firing, from basic principles to industrial combustion and environmental impact, in a clear and comprehensive manner. It offers a solid grounding on biomass combustion, and advice on improving combustion systems. Written by leading international academics and industrial experts, and prepared under the auspices of the IEA Bioenergy Implementing Agreement, the handbook is an essential resource for anyone interested in biomass combustion and co-firing technologies varying from domestic woodstoves to utility-scale power generation. The book covers subjects including biomass fuel pre-treatment and logistics, modelling the combustion process and ash-related issues, as well as featuring an overview of the current R&D needs regarding biomass combustion.

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This book aims to encourage a more reflective, multidisciplinary approach to public safety, and the ‘reenfranchisement’ of those affected by this new phenomenon. Over the past decade health and safety has become a major issue of public interest. There are countless stories of health and safety activities interfering with public life, preventing some beneficial activity from taking place – even creating absurd or dangerous situations. On the one hand, risk assessment, properly conducted, is highly beneficial – it saves lives and prevents injuries. But on the other, it can damage public life. Why has this come about, and does it have to be like that? The authors examine the origins of the problem, look critically at the tools used by safety assessors and their underlying assumptions, and consider important differences between public life and industry (where the approaches largely originated). They illuminate the whole with an analysis of legal requirements, attitudes of stakeholders, and recent research on risk perception and decision making. The result is a profound and important analysis of risk and safety culture and a framework for managing public safety more effectively.

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