Alan Petersen is Professor of Sociology, School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University, Australia.

Iain Wilkinson is a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Kent where he teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses on the sociology of risk and social theory. He convenes the BSA study group on Risk & Society.

Focusing on the connections between health, risk, and insecurity, this book reflects upon the meaning and significance of risk across a broad range of social and institutional contexts, offering new perspectives on an important field of contemporary debate.

1. Health Risk and Vulnerability: An Introduction 2. Unlimited Medicalization?: Risk and the Pathologization of Normality 3. Community Care, Risk and the Shifting Focus of Danger and Vulnerability in Mental Health 4. Governmentality and the Subpolitics of Teenage Sexual Risk Behaviour 5. Restructuring Health Care: Developing Systems to Identify Risk and Prevent Harm 6. Ecological Validity and Risk Management in Forensic Mental Health Services 7. Talking and Taking Risks: An Exploration of Women's Perceptions of Antenatal Testing in Pregnancy 8. Constructing Virtual Selves: Men Risk and the Rehearsal of Sexual Identities 9. Reframing Risk: How Risk Discourses are used by Vaccine Critical Groups in the UK