This open access edited volume provides a unique interdisciplinary study of risk communication, presenting both innovative conceptual frameworks and new empirical data. Risk communication cannot be fully understood without considering not only scientific knowledge and values but also cultural imaginaries, embodied experiences, and power relations. This book therefore sheds light on risk communication as a complex social process involving a wide range of individual and organized actors including political decision-makers, journalists, writers, NGOs, profit organizations and people in everyday life, who interact across various settings. 

With contributions by scholars in sociology, human geography, philosophy, literary studies, science and technology studies, social theory, security studies, and health studies, this volume demonstrates how risks are framed, negotiated, and contested in society. Exploring emerging challenges, it presents strategies to address national security risks, the difficulties of predicting extreme weather events, and the politics surrounding public engagement. This book also addresses previously underrepresented issues—such as the role of literature in shaping collective imaginaries, the limitations of citizen science, the strategic use of rhetoric by institutional actors, and the interaction between media discourses and political or economic interests. The intended audience includes both students and scholars in sociology of risk and uncertainty, risk studies, risk communication and STS, as well as practitioners (such as those in disaster prevention) and policymakers interested in the broader social aspects of risk.

Jens O. Zinn is T.R. Ashworth Professor in Sociology at the University of Melbourne, Australia, internationally recognised for his expertise in risk, uncertainty, and trust in contemporary societies. His research has advanced sociological understandings of how individuals and institutions navigate the complexities of risk, particularly in relation to communication, governance, and everyday life.

He is the author and editor of several influential books, including Covid-19 and the Sociology of Risk and Uncertainty (with Patrick Brown, Palgrave Macmillan, 2022). His publications explore a wide range of topics such as health risk, migration, disaster management, and the role of different knowledges and discourses in shaping public perceptions and people’s responses to risk.