University of Kent

Biographical Details

I am currently senior lecturer in sociology, having previously held lecturing posts at the universities of Reading, Bath and Brunel, and a research fellowship at the Centre for the Study of Democracy at Westminster University. In the department I am the director of studies and also currently coordinate the teaching of introductory sociology. I am on the editorial board of the principal journal in my field, Health, Risk and Society and an editor of the new online journal, Sociology Compass.  I peer review articles for many journals including: Sociology, Risk Analysis, Journal of Risk Research, Technology and Society; Science, Technology and Human Values; Sociological Research Online; Environmental Politics; Public Understanding of Science; Environment and Planning: Government and Policy; Landscape and Urban Planning and the International Journal of Global Environmental Issues.

Research

For me, the most useful themes through which contemporary social change can be captured and understood are uncertainty and risk, and I have been researching these areas since the mid 1990s from an applied, interdisciplinary perspective. I am interested in how change ‘works’ at every level of society from the ‘micro’ of how individuals adapt their thinking and behaviour to uncertainty, through to the political governance of risk and uncertainty at the national and international levels. My first directly risk-related research concerned perceptions of risks to health from mobile phones and how these were created – and how concerns were shaped in different ways in different societies. This struck me as a classic story of our times and I subsequently published a book on the subject: Cellular Phones, Public Fears and a Culture of Precaution (Cambridge UP 2004). From my early focus on health risks and technology I have subsequently become interested in many other fields where the spectre of risk is prominent, such as in relation to children, media, food, and how and why the language of risk and practice of risk assessment is used so widely. Take a look at my undergraduate course on risk for a basic idea of the range of my interests around risk. I am also very interested in rumours and urban legends. See my list of publications; if you would like any of these papers and can’t access them, e-mail me and I’ll send them to you.

My recent micro level sociological studies have concerned the negotiation of sexual uncertainty and risk. One recent study funded by the British Academy examined heightened perceptions of drink spiking among British and American students, as these are fears that appear to have little direct basis. This is a story of young women confronting the uncertain effects of alcohol, and a draft research paper can be found here. A second recent micro study looks at the introduction of women-only carriages on Japanese trains in response to incidents of groping, in research funded by the Sasakawa Foundation. Again the study attempts to locate the social basis for beliefs that contradict evidence, in this case why it is principally respectable middle aged men who are blamed for the problem. Answers are located in the unusually aggravated inter-gender and inter-generational relations of modern Japan. A draft research paper can be found here. These, along with a number of other studies, are to be published in a forthcoming book, Sex, Risk and Society: International Studies in Uncertain Relationships.

My more political, macro level research concerns the development of a political culture of risk in the UK. I have been working with the government’s Risk and Regulation Advisory Council (RRAC), an institution that has arisen from the Better Regulation Commission that is seeking to challenge ‘public risk’ in the UK. My initial scoping report written under their direction is available here. My main focus now for examining the development of risk culture in the UK is through understanding the expansion of public inquiries. A draft scoping report written for the RRAC is available here. Far from being only a response to disasters and tragedies, it is argued that modern inquiries have become one of the most important means through which a new risk-centred thinking and practice has emerged.

My next major project is organising international collaborative research on comparing risk societies. I have long been interested in the very different risk concerns that appear in different societies and the different ways in which they develop. This was an important part of my study of mobile phone fears where, for example, Americans focused their concern on mobiles themselves, whilst most Europeans became concerned instead about mobile masts (and others, like the Finns, never seemed very bothered at all!). Together with colleagues from the Netherlands, Italy, Turkey, and Japan, among others, we are going to trace and compare the development of risk culture in these different countries.

As well as risk my other interests are consumption and the consumer society, demographic trends, science and medicine, and the family. Finally I should say that I am not only interested in understanding the contemporary preoccupation with risk for its own sake, but also in order that it can be challenged. Risk is ultimately about mistrust and is damaging and corrosive. Risk aversion is most worrying in relation to how children are now being brought up, and I am making every effort to try and make sure my own three young boys remain as immune as possible from the suspicions and restrictions of the risk society!

I enjoy speaking about my research and commenting upon wider developments in my areas of specialisation in some forms of media. For example in June 2005 I appeared on Radio 4’s Today programme speaking about scientific uncertainty and on Radio 5 Live about public restrictions on mobile usage. My research on rumours in March 2005 was covered by the national and international media including the Economist, BBC Online, the Observer, Independent on Sunday, as well as the tabloids and many local, regional and international newspapers and websites. In January 2005 I appeared on BBC News 24, BBC Online, BBC Asian Network; BBC Radio Kent, Talk Sport; BBC Radio 5 Live; BBC Radio London; Invicta etc. International media such as Australian and South African radio, and Dutch newspapers also interviewed me. On other occasions in 2004-5 the Economist, Sunday Telegraph, and the Times among others have referred to my work. Previously I have discussed my work on Radio 4’s Analysis, You and Yours, Law in Action, Thinking Allowed among others. In October 2006 my article on mobile phone use in hospitals was covered by The Times, Guardian, BBC Online, Daily Mail and Radio 4’s, PM.

I have been invited to deliver many talks on risk over the years; a selection is below:

• Presentation on risk perception to House of Lords Science and Technology Committee
• International Expert Workshop on Risk (French) National Research Agency    (ANR) and CNRS Sciences Po, Paris
• Lead discussant at international seminar hosted by Munich Re on communicating controversial risk, Munich
•  ‘Media and Risk: Towards a New Research Agenda’ University of Plymouth
• Wilton Park Conference:  Managing Risk: Sensible Precaution or Fear of Trying?
•   Centre for the Analysis of Risk and Regulation, London School of Economics
• Invited expert at Risk and Regulation Roundtable seminar of government officials, regulators and industry representatives, Houses of Parliament
• Department of Engineering, Lancaster University
• Invited speaker at ESRC seminar on ‘Compensation Culture’
• Dept of Sociology, Environment and Technology, University of Stuttgart
• Department of Defence Management and Security Analysis,
  Cranfield University, Royal Military College of Science
• Risk Design Network, Health and Safety Laboratory, Buxton.
• Human and Environmental Risk Assessment of Chemicals Conference, Brussels
• LSE/UCL seminars on the Public Understanding of Science
• European Commission Working party on Electromagnetic Fields, Ispra, Italy
• European Mobile Phone Industry/EC Conference on Mobile Risk, Brussels
• Lecture to Chinese Civil servants on risk, Oxford University
• Goodenough-Chevening Conference on Risk, London

And here are some of my conference presentations:

• Managing the Social Aspects of Change from a Risk Perspective, Beijing Normal University, China
• International Sociological Association (Risk and Uncertainty stream), Barcelona
• Risk and Rationalities, Queen’s College, Cambridge
• Second International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Granada, Spain
• Society for Risk Analysis conference on Risk Perception, University of Nottingham
• BSA Risk Group/Health, Risk and Society conference, University of Kent
• Society for Risk Analysis-Europe, Paris
• Humboldt University/WZB/Coninx Stiftung Conference on Transnational Risk, Potsdam/Berlin
• Panel Convenor on Problems of Precautionary Governance, Society for Risk Analysis, First World Congress, Brussels.
• Society for the Study of Social Problems Annual Conference, Atlanta
• ISA Environmental Research Network, University of Cambridge
• European Sociological Association Network Conference, Univ. of Tel Aviv
• Institute on Western Europe at Columbia University, New York

 

Teaching

I teach the undergraduate module on Risk and Society, and jointly teach the module on Health and Illness.

Publications

Books

•  Divided Europe. London: Pluto Press, 1997 (222 pp. ISBN 07543 1262 4)

(also translated into Greek, and published in USA by University of Michigan Press).

• Cellular Phones, Public Fears and a Culture of Precaution. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. (301 pp. ISBN 0 521 81759 5)

 

Extensively and very favourably reviewed in academic journals such as:

• The American Journal of Sociology (November 2004)
• Sociology (July 2005)
• New Media and Society (Dec 2004)
• Science and Public Policy (October 2004)
• Risk Analysis (August 2004)
• Contemporary Sociology (April 2005)
• Diogene (March 2006)

It has also been reviewed and praised in wider media, such as:

• Times Higher Education Supplement (5 November, 2004)
• Prospect (April 2004)
• The Lancet (24 April 2004)
• British Medical Journal (31 January 2004)

Some examples:

• New Media and Society: ‘an endlessly fascinating case study in the social psychology and sociology of risk perception…unequivocally a masterful treatment of an important but very neglected subject.’
• Sociology: ‘avoid the temptation to skip any sections of the book…this work is not only meticulously researched but also written in an extremely captivating and approachable style that has the potential of attracting a substantial non-academic readership…a very important statement that moves risk theorization away from the claws of generalization, anecdotal accounts and uncritical aphorisms and simultaneously raises the stakes for what can be accepted as vigorous, evidence-based analysis in future research on the social forces affecting risk perception and subsequent policy responses in different social contexts.
• Science and Public Policy: ‘In sum, this book is highly informative, well researched, and dense with important details. Its strength lies in the international comparison and the look at historical developments. Interested researchers will find important insights about international dissemination of anxiety and national responses. The book is a starting point for all interested in the conception of risk and risk policy, as it gives an excellent overview of the present situation, actual problems and development of different policies in different countries.’
• Risk Analysis: ‘…a salutary lesson in the social construction of fears that should be used to inform many similar episodes that will undoubtedly emerge in the years ahead.’
• Contemporary Sociology: ‘Burgess makes a convincing argument that those risks are social, not scientific in origin…extends the social social constructionist project from its case study roots, and in so doing, demonstrates how constructionists could gain a better analytical purchase on the important but somewhat elusive notion of context…the book as a whole is interesting, thought provoking, and well worth reading.’
• The Times Higher: ‘Whether one’s interest is in mobile phones and radio masts, or an entirely different technological hazard, the author’s analysis of the factors behind public concerns and official responses is illuminating…His book offers a salutary lesson to anyone engaged in the management of technological risk. Its relevance goes well beyond the cellular phones of the title.’
• Prospect: ‘…an important book…a meticulous analysis of the origins of fears about microwaves, the reasons behind the creation of the enquiry, the evidence or lack of it and the very different reactions of different countries.’
• The Lancet: ‘Adam Burgess’ fascinating and frequently polemical book highlights the perils of precautionary thinking.’
• IEE Review: ‘I found it thought provoking and can strongly recommend it as a fascinating study of the interaction between science and society.’
• Diogenes: ‘a remarkable work’

 Some Articles and Book Chapters

• ‘Revisiting the BSE Experience: Hindsight and the Politicisation of Food’ Health, Risk and Society 10:2  2008: 195-200.
• ‘Risk, time and choice’  (with Andy Alaszewski), Health, Risk and Society 9(4) 2007, 349-358
• ‘Phantom Risk: The Curious Case of Mobile Phones, Fire and Body Static,’ Health, Risk and Society 9 (1) 2007 ISSN: 1369-8575
• ‘The Making of the Risk-Centred Society and the Limits of Social Risk Research’ Health, Risk and Society 8(4) 2006: 329-342. ISSN: 1369-8575
•  (with Roel Pieterman) ‘Bridging the Gap with Precautionary Politics,’ Recht Der Werkelijkheid (Law in Action) Special Issue on Good Governance 2006: 57-79.     ISBN: 905901409X
• ‘Mobile Phones and Service Stations: Rumour, Risk and Precaution,’ Diogenes 213 54: 1 (in French: March 2006; English: February 2007; and subsequently in Arabic and Chinese): 125-139. ISSN: 0392-1921.
• ‘Social Disaster in an Age of (Non-Social) Risk,’ Space and Culture 9(1) 2006: 74-76. ISSN: 1206 3312
• ‘A Precautionary Tale: The British Response to Cell Phone EMF,’ Technology and Society, 21 (4), 2003: 14-19. ISSN: 0278-0079
• ‘Comparing National Responses to Perceived Health Risks from Mobile Phone Masts,’ Health, Risk and Society, 4 (2), 2002: 175-189. ISSN: 1369-8575
• ‘Flattering Consumption: The Growth of Consumer Rights and Product Safety Concerns in Europe,’ Journal of Consumer Culture, 1 (1), 2001: 93-119. ISSN: 1469-5405
• ‘Health Concerns and Risk Awareness’ in Wainwright, D. (ed.), A  Sociology of Health (Sage: 2008)
• ‘Mobile Phone Use in Hospitals’ British Medical Journal October 14 2006, 333 (7572): 767-768. (with Stuart Derbyshire)
• ‘Risk Perception of Mobile EMF,’ in Nishizawa, M. (Ed.) Mobile EMF and Communication – International Perspectives, Tokyo/Tsukuba: National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention.
• ‘Risk, Precaution and the Media’ in Mueller, R. (ed.), Risk Society and the Culture of Precaution (Routledge 2006)
• ‘The Impact of the Wider Social and Institutional Environment on Risk Perception,’ in del Pozo, C., et al., Risk Perception and Risk Communication: Tools, Experiences and Strategies. European Commission Directorate General Joint Research Centre 2006.

 Forthcoming Publications

• Embodying Uncertainty? Understanding Heightened Perception of Drink ‘Spiking’ (draft available)
• Constructing Sexual Risk: ‘Chikan’, Collapsing Male Authority and the Emergence of Women-Only Train Carriages in Japan (draft available)
•  ‘Death in the Risk Society: The Elusive Search for Meaning’ in Howarth, G. (ed),       Modern Death (Reaktion 2009).
•  ‘New Perspectives on AIDS in Africa’ Sociology Compass (2009)
•   Governance, Media and Risk Twenty Years On, Journal of Risk Research (2009)

Research Reports

• (2008) Report on ‘Public Inquiries and the Management of Public Risk’ for the Risk, Regulation Advisory Council, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform  (Strategic Policy Analysis) http://rrac.intelligus.net/portal/site/rrac/home/
• (2007) Report on ‘Public Risk’ for the Risk, Regulation Advisory Council, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform  (Strategic Policy Analysis)
• (2007) Contributor to Royal Society of Arts Risk Commission report on Risk and Childhood