Jens O. Zinn – författare

This book presents a case study of the proliferation of at risk-language in The Times news coverage from 1785 to 2009, illuminating the changing social experience of risk.

Zinn presents an historical examination of the forces which have shaped the language of risk over time, and considers how linguistic developments in recent decades are underpinned by issues such as cultural and structural transformations, the management of infectious and chronic diseases and climate change. He also explores changes in the public sphere, including the production of the news.  

Based on an interdisciplinary research project which combines linguistic research tools with sociological analysis of the social contexts, the book contributes to a better understanding of how ''at risk'' has become a defining feature of the UK in recent decades, and one which permeates all kinds of social domains. This research will be a point of reference for students and scholars engaging with risk studies from various disciplines including sociology, media studies, history and socio-linguistics.  

This book outlines and systematises findings from a growing body of research that examines the different rationales, dimensions and dynamics of risk-taking in current societies; providing insight into the different motivations and social roots of risk-taking to advance scholarly debates and improve social regulation. 

Conceptually, the book goes beyond common approaches which problematise socially undesirable risk-taking, or highlight the alluring character of risk-taking. Instead, it follows a broadly interpretivist approach and engages in examining motives, control, routinisation, reflexivity, skills, resources, the role of identity in risk-taking and how these are rooted in and framed by different social forces.

Zinn draws on qualitative studies from different theoretical and conceptual backgrounds such as phenomenology, hermeneutics, pragmatism, feminism, class analysis, theory of practice and discourse analysis among others, to outline key distinctions and concepts central to the understanding of risk-taking. 

It will be a key resource for everyone who is concerned with the understanding and management of risk-taking in all kinds of social domains, such as immigration, youth, leisure sports, crime, health, finance, and social policy.

This book provides a global perspective on COVID-19, taking the heterogenous realities of the pandemic into account. Contributions are rooted in critical social science studies of risk and uncertainty and characterized by theoretical approaches such as cultural theory, risk society theory, governmentality perspectives, and many important insights from ‘southern’ theories.

This book investigates to what extent claims of common social science risk theories such as risk society, governmentality, risk and culture, risk colonisation and culture of fear are reflected in linguistic changes in print news media. The authors provide a corpus-based investigation of risk words in The New York Times (1987-2014) and a case study of the health domain.

The book presents results from an interdisciplinary enterprise which combines sociological risk theories with a systematic functional theory of language to conduct an empirical analysis of linguistic patterns and social change. It will be of interest to students and scholars interested in corpus linguistics and digital humanities, and social scientists looking for new research strategies to examine long term social change.

Understanding and managing risk and uncertainty is a central task in contemporary societies characterised by rapid social, technological and environmental change. This book presents research approaches used by scholars who all share a passion to gain new insights in how individuals, organisations and societies approach uncertain futures and their potential dangers. The contributions illustrate the usefulness of particular methods and methodologies for researching risk in order to advance the understanding and management of social, technological and environmental challenges. With research strategies and approaches from sociology, psychology, history, linguistics, anthropology, and gender studies, Researching Risk and Uncertainty provides guidance and inspiration to students and scholars across a range of disciplines interested in risk, disaster and social crisis.