What environmental and technological risk communication research and health risk research can learn from each other

The study of risk perception and communication has emerged in several disciplines and fields, and there has not been strong convergence between them, especially in Europe and specifically in Britain. The lack of connection between, for example, the fields of health risk and environmental and technological risk, and still more with respect to fears of crime or old age poverty or privacy violation, has meant that theories have not been shown to be adequate, and practical prescriptions for conflict containment and communication have not been made robust. This article examines the roots of the fragmentation, examining the particular case of the relationship between health and environmental/technological risk studies, considering why the flow of ideas and methods has been so limited, and much of it in a rather surprising direction. The paper concludes by offering some principles that could inform a strategy for more integrated research on risk perception and communication.

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