"Health, Risk & Society"

Crighton, E.J.; Brown, C.; Baxter, J.; Lemyre, L.; Masuda, J.R.; Ursitti, F.

doi: 10.1080/13698575.2013.796345pmid: 23805055

There is a growing awareness and concern in contemporary societies about potential health impacts of environmental contaminants on children. Mothers are traditionally more involved than other family members in managing family health and household decisions and thus targeted by public health campaigns to minimise risks. However little is known about how new mothers perceive and experience environmental health risks to their children. In 2010, we undertook a parallel case study using qualitative, in-depth interviews with new mothers and focus groups with public health key informants in two Public Health Units in Ontario Province, Canada. We found that the concern about environmental hazards among participants ranged from having no concerns to actively incorporating prevention into daily life. Overall, there was a common perception among participants that many risks, particularly in the indoor environment, were controllable and therefore of little concern. But environmental risks that originate outside the home were viewed as less controllable and more threatening. In response to such threats, mothers invoked coping strategies such as relying on the capacity of children's bodies to adapt. Regardless of the strategies adopted, actions (or inactions) were contingent upon active information seeking. We also found an optimistic bias in which new mothers reported that other children were at greater risk despite similar environmental circumstances. The findings suggest that risk communication experts must attend to the social and environmental contexts of risk and coping when designing strategies around risk reducing behaviours.

Markon, Marie-Pierre L.; Crowe, Joshua; Lemyre, Louise

doi: 10.1080/13698575.2013.796344pmid: N/A

With the shift towards more participative approaches to risk communication and risk management, policymakers are expected to be more transparent with the public concerning existing uncertainties about health risks, such as lack of data or contradictory evidence. There is, however, a debate among researchers as to whether this transparency about uncertainties is indeed welcomed by the public and if it is effective in promoting trust in risk regulatory institutions. The qualitative study on which this article is based aimed to clarify citizens' perceptions of diverse sources of uncertainty in government risk communication and their expectations with respect to discussing uncertainties. Forty-seven adults from two major Canadian cities took part in focus groups or individual interviews in which they voiced their expectations about who should be involved in risk communication, why uncertainties should be communicated, what sources of uncertainties were preferred, as well as how and when these should be discussed. Their discussions showed that they expected the government to include citizens in evaluating and managing uncertainties pertaining to risks under individual control and directly informing consumer choices about health risks. In contrast, they questioned the relevance of systematically exposing uncertainties relating to risks perceived as outside individual control, and associated with very low probability scenarios of possible threats. Globally, they appraised the desirability of discussing uncertainties in risk communication in relation to the perceived utility of the information for decision-making. These findings indicate that risk communicators and managers need to consider ways in which discussions of uncertainties can empower citizens.

Brown, Sally; Shoveller, Jeannie; Chabot, Cathy; LaMontagne, Anthony D.

doi: 10.1080/13698575.2013.796346pmid: N/A

In this article we describe how concepts of risk are both generated by and used to reinforce a neoliberal agenda in relation to the health and well-being of young people. We examine how risk may be used as a tool to advance ideals such as rational choice and individual responsibility, and how this can further disadvantage young people living within the contexts of structural disadvantage (such as geographic areas of long-term unemployment; communities that experience racial discrimination). We also identify the ways in which risk is applied in uneven ways within structurally disadvantaged contexts. To suggest a way forward, we articulate a set of principles and strategies that offer up a means of resisting neoliberal imperatives and suggest how these might play out at the micro-, meso- and macro-levels. To do this, we discuss examples from the UK, Canadian and Australian contexts to illustrate how young people resist being labelled as risky, and how it is possible to engage in health equity-enhancing actions, despite seemingly deterministic forces. The cases we describe reveal some of the vulnerabilities (and hence opportunities) within the seemingly impenetrable world view and powers of neoliberals, and point towards the potential to formulate an agenda of resistance and new directions for young people's health promotion.

Morrison, Penelope; Nikolajski, Cara; Zickmund, Susan

doi: 10.1080/13698575.2013.796347pmid: N/A

In this article, we draw on a qualitative case study undertaken in 2008 and 2009 of staff working at community-based organisations for at-risk youth in Juiz de Fora, Brazil, to examine staff members' perspectives of adolescent health-risk behaviours and resiliency. We use these data to explore how recent policy changes in Brazil have led to a shift in the ways in which adolescent risk taking is perceived by those working in youth services, and to suggest the influence that this has had on the way in which these entities promote resiliency among the population they serve. Specifically, we argue that Brazil's Child and Adolescent Act of 1990, a policy derived from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, has been instrumental in reframing for the community-based organisations the question of adolescent health-risk behaviours into a rights-based framework and has shifted the perceptions of those working at such organisations as to who a youth ‘at-risk’ is, why young people engage in risk taking and how best to promote resiliency. This work has implications for understanding both how risk and resiliency are constructed in different social and cultural contexts and how such concepts may change over time due to shifting socio-political climates.

Rutz, Suzanne I.; Adams, Samantha A.; Buitendijk, Simone E.; Robben, Paul B.M.; de Bont, Antoinette A.

doi: 10.1080/13698575.2013.796343pmid: N/A

As governmental tasks are decentralised (transferred from central government to administrative agencies and local governments), inspectorates are expected to strengthen their regulatory role and tackle social problems. This is difficult, however, when they must assess complex, uncertain or ambiguous situations in which the pre-defined assessment criteria that inspectorates normally use are either unavailable or contested by the actors involved. In this article, we explore the challenges faced by a partnership of five Dutch inspectorates that carried out a joint inspection on tackling the consequences of youth poverty. This is based on a 20-month ethnographic study, conducted between June 2009 and March 2011. To analyse the data, we applied a theoretical framework based on characterisation and governance of risks. Our study shows that, like many other social problems, poverty among children was associated with complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity. Complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity were tolerated to some degree, for example, during stakeholder participation to provide diverse options for improvement. However, inspectors often did not persist with such participatory processes. The pressure to act that was associated with a strict regulatory role and the regulatory context led the inspectorates to hide the lack of certainty by constructing poverty as a simple problem. As a result, little benefit was derived from increasing participation. We highlight how meeting the two expectations – strengthening the regulatory role and tackling social problems – posed important dilemmas for the inspectorates, especially in situations where knowledge was not available and roles were unclear.