1998 Annual Meeting Plenary Session: Assessing and Managing Risks in a Democratic Society

The theme of one of the plenary sessions held at the 1998 annual meeting of the Society for Risk Analysis, 'Assessing and Managing Risks in a Democratic Society,' was chosen to reflect the current debate about the best ways to integrate social, political, economic, and technical issues into fair risk management decisions. In the papers presented here, the three plenary speakers provide their perspectives on how environmental risk management decision making is—or should be—informed by democratic processes.
John D. Graham Making Sense of Risk
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Risk, Democracy, and the Environment
Jason Shogren Markets to Master Health and Environmental Risk
Audience Questions and Answers     

Exploring the Predictors of Organizational Preparedness for Natural Disasters

There is an extensive body of research on the determinants of disaster preparedness at the individual and household levels. The same cannot be said for the organizational level. Hence, the purpose of this study is to shed light on the predictors of organizational preparedness for natural disasters. Since leaders of organizations have an incentive to overstate their level of preparedness and because surveys of organizational leaders suffer from selection bias and low response rates, we take the novel approach of interviewing employees about the organizations that employ them. Using an online survey, we collected information from a national sample of 2,008 U.S. employees and estimated the predictors of preparedness at the organizational level. We find, among other results, that organization size (facility level) is a consistent predictor of preparedness at the organizational level. We conclude with policy recommendations and outline an agenda for future research on organizational preparedness for natural disasters.     

‘Fuck It,Shit Happens (FISH)’: a social generations approach to understanding young people’s imaginings of life after school in 2016–2017

ABSTRACT

This article uses a social generations approach to explore the lives of young people transitioning to life after schooling. Drawing on ethnographic research in England during the geopolitical uncertainty of 2016–2017, we track the trajectories and narratives of six individuals. The research begins with final year pupils in schools talking about their futures, during and after their A-Level exams. We then follow these individuals on routes to Higher Education and employment, exploring how they are socialised into imaginings of the future and/or struggle to inhabit these futures. A deeply ingrained, modernist, neoliberal reckoning of future time is normalised through experiences of schooling. However, this logic is troubled profoundly in the transition to life after school. Young people’s experiences in an unpredictable present run in stark contrast to the ordered trajectory of future action they have been socialised to expect. Amidst this uncertainty, ambivalence towards shaping the future (‘Fuck It, Shit Happens’) can in some ways feel like the most agentic stance to take. Furlong et al.’s (2011) social generations approach to understanding youth transitions reveals how we must critique the very concept of ‘the future’ if we are to understand the reality of youth transitions in the present.     

Does FDI Guarantee the Stability of International Capital Flows? Evidence from Malaysia

The conventional wisdom is that crises are largely due to swings in short‐term capital. Economies that finance their current account deficits mainly via foreign direct investment (FDI) are therefore seen as being less susceptible to a crisis. The analysis in this article, backed up by some empirical evidence drawn from Malaysia, challenges the casual presumption that the switch towards FDI alone will automatically imply that extreme capital instability will become a thing of the past.     

Cash payments in context: (self-)regulation in the new social relations of assistance

Cash payments to meet social care needs offer the possibility for the direct employment of personal assistants using public funds. Empirical work internationally has identified the benefits of cash payments. However, there has been less interest in the relationships between employers and their employees. This article offers some reflections upon the employment relationship from the perspectives of employers who have learning difficulties and their personal assistants. The study involved eight employers, their supporters and their personal assistants in an English city. A grounded theory approach was utilised and interviews were analysed using a framework approach. This article argues that the relational aspects of direct employment arrangements have not been adequately considered in academic literature and the policy framework. These insights can add to debates around how social care support mechanisms can offer responsive assistance whilst questioning the assumed ‘empowering’ effect of an unregulated market.     

Gender and multiple forms of peer victimization: how do they influence adolescent psychosocial adjustment?

This study explores the relationship among multiple forms of peer victimization (e.g., direct physical/verbal, relational, and sexual harassment) and psychosocial adjustment among urban students and uses cluster analysis to identify subgroups of victims. Students in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade completed self-report surveys about their psychosocial adjustment, peer victimization experiences, and the gender of the other person involved. Results reveal that both physical/verbal victimization and sexual harassment were related to internalizing behavior, and sexual harassment was related to externalizing behavior. Cluster analysis revealed preliminary subgroups of victims. In addition, being victimized by a boy was more strongly related to behavior problems for both boys and girls than the experience of being victimized by a girl. Results suggest that the gender of perpetrators and victims should be considered, and there is a need to include sexual harassment in the study of peer victimization when developmentally appropriate.     

The relationship between negative mood and sexuality in heterosexual college woman and men

Negative mood states, such as depression and anxiety, are typically associated with decreased sexual interest and arousal. However, there is also some evidence that depressed or anxious mood may increase sexual interest or arousal in some individuals. In this study, 663 female college students (mean age = 18.9 years, SD = 1.21) answered questions regarding the effects of anxious and depressed mood on sexual interest and arousal and completed trait measures of sexual excitation and inhibition, anxiety, and depression. The majority of women reported decreased sexual interest and response when feeling depressed or anxious; a minority (about 10%) of women, however, reported increased sexual interest/response during anxious and depressed mood. This sample of women was compared to a sample of 399 college-aged men. In general, men were more likely than women to report increased sexual interest during negative mood states. Of the variables explored, propensity for sexual excitation was the strongest predictor of the relationship between negative mood and sexuality in women. Individual differences in the effects of negative mood may prove relevant to our understanding of a variety of topics, including risky and compulsive sexual behavior and sexual dysfunction.