This book contains new theoretical discussion and new empirical evidence on the way people think about and cope with the risks and uncertainties of modern life. The national surveys cover areas ranging from lone parenthood to medicine, from house purchase to long-term care, from personal finance to the welfare state. People's confidence in their capacity to cope with uncertainty is closely related to social class, gender and access to support networks. Policies that assume that people are self-interested rational actors are likely to produce unsatisfactory results and to damage the essential social capital of trust.

List of Tables Preface Notes on the Contributors Risk and Welfare; P.Taylor-Gooby PART I: MOTIVES, POLICY AND BEHAVIOUR From Knight to Knave: Public Policy and Endogenous Motivation; J.LeGrand Motivation and Human Behaviour; B.S.Frey Managing Risk by Controlling Behaviour: Social Security Administration and the Erosion of Welfare Citizenship; H.Dean PART II: RESPONSES TO RISK The Rationality Mistake: New Labour's Communitarianism and 'Supporting Families'; A.Barlow & S.Duncan with R.Edwards Coping with Risk in a Flexible Labour Market; J.Ford Public Understanding of Financial Risk: The Challenge to Regulation; P.Lunt & J.Blundell Insights into the Uncertain World of the Consumer: Reflections on the Risks of Non-Prescription Medicines; P.R.Ward, P.Bissell & P.R.Noyce Choices in Owner-Occupation; M.Munro Risk and the Need for Long-Term Care; G.Parker References Index

Peter Taylor-Gooby is Professor of Social Policy at the University of Kent, UK. He chairs the British Academy New Paradigms in Public Policy Programme and the HEFCE Social Work and Social Policy Panel. His recent publications include New Paradigms in Public Policy, Reframing Social Citizenship, Risk in Social Science (with Jens Zinn), Ideas and the Welfare State, and New Risks, New Welfare.