Modern societies have been termed 'risk societies' and risk management has become a paradigm for good governance. This fascinating collection, including an international array of contributors, examines the key 'threats' to society and subjects the public perception of uncertainty to sociological analysis.

E. REMI AIYEDE Co-ordinator of the National Governance Assessment Survey at the Development Policy Centre, Nigeria FREDERIC BOUDER Senior Research Fellow, King's Centre for Risk Management, King's College, London, UK ADAM BURGESS Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Department of Social and Policy Studies, University of Bath, UK BRETT DAVIDSON Programme Manager at the Institute of Democracy (IDASA), South Africa MATTHIAS ECKER-EHRHARDT Senior Researcher at the Social Science Centre, Berlin, Germany HARALD HEINRICHS Associate Professor at the University of Lüneberg, Germany BÄRBEL HÖHN MP for the German Green Party and Minister of the Environment and Conservation, Agriculture and Consumer Protection for North Rhine-Westphalia, 1996-2005, Germany SHEILA JASANOFF Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, USA CHANDRIKA NATH Scientific Consultant at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, London, UK CHARLES PERROW Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Yale University, USA HANS PETER PETERS Communication Researcher at the Research Centre Jülich, Germany (Humans Environment Technology Programme Group) and Honorary Professor at the Free University, Berlin, Germany GÜNTHER SCHMID Director at the Social Science Research Centre, Berlin, Germany and Professor of Political Economy at the Free University, Berlin, Germany URSULA SCHRÖDER Researcher in the Department of Political and Social Sciences European University, Florence, Italy KLAUS TÖPFER Director-General of the United Nations Office in Nairobi, Kenya and Executive-Director of the United Nations Environment Programme