Recent events like the BSE and GM food crises, and the Concorde crash in July 2000, have illustrated that large private and public sector organisations are vulnerable and can suffer from major disruption to their business. Awareness of the need to develop expertise in risk management has grown and as a result new programs of research and teaching in risk and crisis management are being developed at universities. The contributions to this volume have been selected by adopting a multi-disciplinary approach to risk, and by considering the implications for management, business and society. The contributions are written by recognized experts in their fields and represent a unique collection of papers on the topic. Audience: The book will be of benefit to scientists, managers, politicians and trainers in academia, business and industry involved in risk analysis, assessment and management, regulation and deregulation of risk, crisis management and accidents and disasters.

Foreword. Notes on Contributors. Acknowledgements. Of course it''s safe, trust me! Conceptualising issues of risk management within the Risk Society''; D. Smith, S. Tombs. A case study in risk management: the UK pumped storage business; A.I. Glendon, et al. Challenging the orthodoxy in risk management: The Need for a paradigm shift? C. Smallman. Incentives for loss prevention instead of disaster management by the state in the case of catastrophic risks; W.R. Stahel. History repeating itself? Expertise, barriers to learning and the precautionary principle; D. Smith, J. McCloskey. The social construction and deconstruction of risk; H. Höpfl. Opening Pandora''s box: Stress at work and its implications for emergency management; D. Smith, D. Elliott. Questions of Risk and regulation: Hegemony, governance and the US chemical industry; F. Pearce, S. Tombs. Injury, death and the deregulation fetish: The politics of occupational safety regulation in UK manufacturing industries; S. Tombs. Deregulation and BSE; C. Gifford. The political economy of risk: Piper Alpha and the British offshore oil industry; M. Beck, C. Woolfson. Learning the lessons of Piper Alpha? Offshore workers'' perceptions of changing levels of risk; D. Whyte. Changing perceptions of risk: The Implications for Management; E. Coles, et al. Index.