Theories of Uncertainty and Risk across Different Modernities

This collection discusses common ways of thinking about risk and uncertainty through examining how uncertainty is handled in different settings around the world. The book challenges assumptions which associate risk with post-traditional, secular and liberal characteristics. It was originally published as a special issue of Health, Risk & Society.

Patrick Brown is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He is Deputy Editor of Health, Risk & Society and has published widely on topics of trust, hope, risk and related ways in which organisations, groups and individuals handle uncertainty.

1. Theorising uncertainty and risk across different modernities: considering insights from 'non-North-Western' studies 2. Engaging with risk in non-Western settings: an editorial 3. Anthropology and risk: insights into uncertainty, danger and blame from other cultures - A review essay 4. Faith and uncertainty: migrants' journeys between Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore 5. Applying the risk society thesis within the context of flood risk and poverty in Jakarta, Indonesia 6. Coping with health-related uncertainties and risks in Rakhine (Myanmar) 7. Performing prevention: risk, responsibility, and reorganising the future in Japan during the H1N1 pandemic 8. Purity and danger: shamans, diviners and the control of danger in premodern Japan as evidenced by the healing rites of the Aogashima islanders