Growing up with risk

Description

"Growing up with risk" provides a critical analysis of ways in which risk assessment and management - now a pervasive element of contemporary policy and professional practice - are defined and applied in policy, theory and practice in relation to children and young people. Drawing on conceptual frameworks from across the social sciences, the book examines contrasting perspectives on risk that occur in different policy domains and professional and lay discourses, discussing the dilemmas of response that arise from these sometimes contested viewpoints - from playground safety to risks associated with youthful substance use. The contributors address issues of gender, ethnicity and socio-economic status which impact on definitions and responses to risk, and consider related concepts, such as 'risk-resilience', care-control' and 'dependence-autonomy'. Written in an accessible manner, each chapter provides a specific policy case study to illustrate the cross-cutting themes and issues that will make it a key text for researchers and students. It also offers policy makers and practitioners a valuable insight into the complexities of balancing responsibility for protecting the young with the benefits of risk taking and the need to allow young people to experiment.

Betsy Thom is Reader in Drug and Alcohol Studies at Middlesex University. Rosemary Sales is Professor of Social Policy, specialising in refugee and migration studies, Middlesex University. Jenny Pearce is Professor of Young People and Public Policy, University of Bedfordshire

"In a debate all too often characterised by either nostalgic moral panics about a simpler past, or abstract theory that takes too little account of the lived and variable experience of young people, this book provides a welcome balance of theoretical insight and empirical specificity. It is, then, a timely collection, bringing a wealth of scholarship to bear on questions which will be of interest to academics and policy makers, and to anyone with a concern about how public policy intersects with culture on the issue of growing up." Judith Green, Reader in Sociology of Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine "This interesting and exciting book makes an original contribution to the developing field of risk theory, taking a wide ranging look at the issue of risk as it relates to the process of growing up in our increasingly cautious culture. It will be of great value to practitioners who have to cope on a day to day basis with a political climate in which risk is deemed to be 'understood' but the understanding is often counter-intuitive to their experiences in practice. 'Growing up with risk' is not to be missed by anyone interested in risk and young people." Marilyn Gregory, University of Sheffield