A Framework of Intersectional Risk Theory in the Age of Ambivalence (Critical Studies in Risk and Uncertainty)

This book brings feminist theories and concepts to the sociology of risk in an attempt to carve out a framework for intersectional risk theories in times of ambivalence. The authors purport that risk is pervasive in the Global North, and is fast becoming a hegemonic governing principle. In order to understand this crucial aspect of society, sociological risk theories and risk analysis must go beyond power and social inequalities, to incorporate an intersectional risk approach that takes into account gender, race and other critical perspectives. Their proposed framework will provide the tools to assess how risk is situated in different configurations of power, revealing cracks and openings in the weft of power and rethinking risk governance in contemporary society. By utilising an intersectional and nuanced analysis, the everyday understanding, practices and discourses of risk can be explored and better understood. This book will be of interest to scholars and students who value the importance of establishing interdisciplinary networks between risk theory, sociology, politics and more in order to study the contemporary world. Contents 6 1: The Age of Ambivalence 10 Introduction 10 Ambivalence as an Epistemological and Ethical Position 13 Outline of the Book 17 Chapter 2. Conceptual Frames: Risk and Intersectionality 19 Chapter 3. Risk, Inequality, and (Post-) Structure: Risk as Governing 20 Chapter 4. The Performative Aspects of Risk and the Constitution of Subjects 20 Chapter 5. Doing, Redoing, and Doing Away: Performing Risk 21 Chapter 6. The Lived Experience of Risk: Multiple Standpoints and Agencies 21 Chapter 7. Risk Networks: Actors, Actants, and Assemblages 22 Chapter 8. Methodological Applications 22 Chapter 9. Risk, Intersectionality, and Ambivalence: A Better Way to Understand Inequality 23 Epilogue: Imagining the Future Differently 23 To the Reader 24 References 24 2: Conceptual Frames: Risk and Intersectionality 27 Introduction 27 Risk, Uncertainty, and Power 28 Theoretical Approaches to Risk and Inequality 32 Intersectionality: Moving Concepts Across Fields 37 Intersectional Risk Theory and the Doing of Risk 40 References 42 3: Risk, Inequality, and (Post) Structure: Risk as Governing 45 Introduction 45 The Governmentality of Risk and Security—Attending to the Concept of Regime 48 Risk Regulation Regimes and Gender Regimes 51 An Intersectional Approach to Risk Regulation Regimes 56 Bringing Ambivalence into the Structure of Inequality: Concluding Remarks 60 References 62 4: The Performative Aspects of Risk and the Constitution of Subjects 66 Introduction 66 Acts of Interpellation and Ambivalence 67 Normalisation, Biopolitics of Risk, and Inequality 69 Performativity, Subjectification, and Risk 73 Morality, Risk, and Its Intersectional Implications 76 Concluding Remarks: From Risk Performativity to the Performance of Risk 80 References 82 5: Doing, Redoing, and Doing Away: Performing Risk 85 Introduction 85 Reflexivity, Individualisation, and Risk Subjectivities 88 Performing Risk: Doing Gender 91 Following Lines, Orientation, and Doing Risk 93 Passing, Avoiding, and Managing Risk 96 Coming up Against Lines or Destabilising Dynamics of Power Through the Redoing and Undoing of Risk 97 Concluding Remarks: From Doing Risk to Living with Risk 101 References 103 6: The Lived Experience of Risk: Multiple Standpoints and Agencies 106 Introduction 106 The First-person Character of Living with Risk and Uncertainty 108 Existential Phenomenology and Engaging with Risk in Non-Western Settings 111 Feminist Epistemologies and Studies of Risk 114 Conclusions 118 References 119 7: Risk Networks: Actors, Actants, and Assemblages 122 Introduction 122 To Turn or Not to Turn: Materialism in the Wake of Poststructuralism 123 The Material Turn in Studies of Risks 127 Assemblages of Posthumans at Risk 130 Conclusions 135 References 136 8: Methodological Applications 138 Introduction 138 Interpreting Risk: Discourses and Practices 140 Example of Group-centred Analysis 141 Examples of System-centred Analysis 143 Using Quantitative Data to Address Critical Questions on Risk 147 From Methodology to Methods 150 Exploring Risk and Intersectionality: An Empirical Example of Performing Performative Notions of Risk 152 Intersectional Risk Analysis: Concluding Remarks 157 References 159 9: Risk, Intersectionality, and Ambivalence: A Way to Understand Inequality 162 Introduction 162 Intersectional Risk-Regulating Regimes 165 Performative Subjectification and Risk 166 Doing, Redoing, and Undoing Risk 168 Standpoint Existentialism 170 Assemblages 171 Concluding Remarks 172 References 176 Epilogue: Imagining the Future Differently 177 References 182 Index 199