+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Posted Thu, 14 Apr 2016 08:49:22
This message was forwarded through MEDSOCNEWS.
If you wish to make an announcement or publicise
an event then please send the text to:
[log in to unmask]
You can follow us on twitter @MedSocNews
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Practice and Experience of Risk Work: Developing Theoretical Understandings

Call for Papers for 2017 Annual Health, Risk & Society Special Issue on Risk and Social Theory Special issue editors: Patrick Brown (University of Amsterdam); Nicola Gale (University of Birmingham)

In this Call for Papers we invite risk researchers to submit articles for a special issue of Health, Risk & Society scheduled for publication in 2017. The special issue will focus on The Practice and Experience of Risk Work and will bring together articles which develop theoretical understandings of the experiences and practices of various front-line practitioners who are required to interpret and manage risk within their everyday work. The deadline for submission is 30 November 2016.

This special issue, to be published in 2017, aims to bring together articles which develop theoretical understandings of the experiences and practices of various front-line practitioners who are required to interpret and manage risk within their everyday work.

While a significant body of literature regarding the nature of street-level work amidst uncertainty already exists – within political science, sociology, policy studies and beyond – there are somewhat fewer studies considering the specific practices by which risk knowledge is handled and interpreted in everyday work or, moreover, of the meanings and experiences of risk workers. Where the interpretation, presentation and management of risk is studied (from our reading, Horlick-Jones 2005 appears to be the only theorist to use the term ‘risk work’), the focus tends to be placed upon the organisational, discursive and/or policy dynamics (ibid.; Castel 1991; Mishra & Graham 2012), or on the power dynamics associated with risk and their varied and sometimes unintended effects in re-shaping patients’ and publics’ subjectivities (Davison et al. 1991, Petersen 1997, Lupton and Tulloch 2002, Järvinen 2012).

Much less attention has been devoted to how the work of interpreting, managing, and/or communicating/translating risk is pragmatically negotiated amid a host of relation, professional and organisational dynamics (how risk work ‘gets done’ c.f. Horlick-Jones 2005) and, moreover, of the everyday lived experiences and conditions of work.

Central to these pragmatic practices and experiences (as is apparent in our own research and a small number of studies already in existence – e.g. Warner and Gabe 2004) appear to be a range of tensions which are characteristic of risk work. These tensions may emerge out of the limited and sometimes contradictory knowledge-bases on which the ‘risks’ which inform everyday work are inferred (Gale et al. 2011; Maconachie & Lewendon 2004), the difficulties in applying probabilistic information regarding large populations within advice given to individuals (see Heyman et al. 2013), and balancing the need to intervene (through communication or other forms of risk ‘minimisation’) with the need to maintain positive trusting relations with one’s client group (Brown and Calnan 2013). The organisational context, alongside the professional/working identities of those carrying out risk work, will bear importantly on how these tensions are experienced and negotiated.

We would very much welcome articles which address these and related themes with the aim of developing theory around risk work. While we are chiefly interested in research carried out within health and social care contexts, we will also consider empirical and theoretical studies regarding other contexts where ‘risk work’ is practiced at the border (or street-level – Lipsky 1980) between large organisations and those outside the organisation – be they patients, service-users, clients, customers or wider ‘publics’. One important development within various European welfare states is the rise of para-professionals – lay health workers and peer support in the management of risk – and we would encourage any papers that explore whether the rise of risk work is resulting in a reconfiguration of existing professions through the co-option of new domains of practice, or whether it is producing a new group of healthcare workers to meet this need.

Authors are encouraged to contact the special issue editors beforehand to discuss the suitability and focus of their article submission. The editors are happy to offer advice and to look at draft outlines of potential articles. You can email either Patrick Brown ([log in to unmask]) or Nicola Gale ([log in to unmask]).

The deadline for submission is 30 November 2016. Submission should take place through the Health, Risk & Society Manuscript Central online platform and authors should pay close attention to the instructions for authors when preparing their manuscript – http://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?journalCode=chrs20&page=instructions#.VVxksZU9LIUhttp://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?journalCode=chrs20&page=instructions#.VVxksZU9LIU

If you are unfamiliar with the journal then you should read the Editor’s advice which provides clear and useful information on the scope of the journal and its house style – http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/authors/CHRS-Editor-Advice.pdfhttp://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/authors/CHRS-Editor-Advice.pdf

References
Brown, P. and Calnan, M. (2013). Trust as a means of bridging the management of risk and the meeting of need: a case study in mental health service provision. Social Policy and Administration 47(3):242-61.
Castel, R. (1991). From dangerousness to risk. In G. Burchell, C. Gordon & P. Miller (Ed.s) The Foucault Effect: studies in governmentality (pp. 281-298). Chicago: University of Chicago Press;
Davison, C., Smith, C.D. & Frankel, S. (1991). Lay epidemiology and the prevention paradox: the implications of coronary candidacy for health education. Sociology of Health & Illness 13(1):1-19.
Gale, N.K., Greenfield, S., Gill, P., Gutridge, K., Marshall, T., 2011. Patient and general practitioner attitudes to taking medication to prevent cardiovascular disease after receiving detailed information on risks and benefits of treatment: a qualitative study. BMC Family Practice 12: 59.
Heyman, B., Alaszewski, A. and Brown, P. (2013). Probabilistic thinking and health risks: an editorial. Health, Risk & Society 15(1):1-11.
Horlick-Jones, T. (2005). On ‘risk work’: Professional discourse, accountability, and everyday action. Health, Risk & Society 7(3):293-307.
Järvinen, M. (2012). A will to health? Drinking, risk and social class. Health, Risk & Society 14(3):241-256.
Lipsky, M. (1980). Street-Level Bureaucracy: dilemmas of the individual in public services. New York: Russel Sage.
Lupton, D. and Tulloch, J. (2002). ‘Risk is part of your life’: risk epistemologies among a group of Australians. Sociology 36(2317-334. ):
Maconachie, M. and G. Lewendon (2004). "Immunising Children in Primary Care in the UK-What are the Concerns of Principal Immunisers?" Health Education Journal 63(1): 40-49.
Mishra, A. & Graham, J. (2012) Risk, choice and the ‘girl vaccine’: Unpacking human papillomavirus (HPV) immunization. Health, Risk & Society 14(1):57-69.
Petersen, A., 1997. Risk, governance and the new public health, in: Petersen, A., Bunton, R. (Eds.), Foucault, Health and Medicine (pp. 189-206). Routledge, London.

Dr Nicola K Gale
School of Social Policy
University of Birmingham
--
Health Services Management Centre, Park House, 40 Edgbaston Park Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2RT
E: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> |T: +44 (0)121 4149089

**********************************************************************
1. For general enquires or problems with the list or to CHANGE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS send a message to:
[log in to unmask]
2. To suspend yourself from the list, whilst on leave, for example,
send an email to [log in to unmask] with the following message:
set medsocnews nomail
3. To resume email from the list, send the following message:
set medsocnews mail
4. To leave MedSocNews, send an email to [log in to unmask] with the message (leave the subject line blank and do not include a signature):
leave medsocnews
5. To join or subscribe to MedSocNews, send an email to [log in to unmask] with the message (leave the subject line blank and do not include a signature):
SUBSCRIBE medsocnews firstname lastname
6. Further information about the medsocnews discussion list (including
list archive and how to subscribe to or leave the list) can be found
at the list web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medsocnews.html
**********************************************************************