"Risk, Environment and Society is an inventive and core text within the framework of risk studies, and should be read first by any scholar interrested in that field. If you are a newcomer in that field, this is the book to begin with, because it is clear and extensive. ! Among recent books, I can't think of a more useful scholarly achievement in risk studies, making Piet Strydom one of the true leading theorists in his discipline." Sociological Research On-Line How and why have the closed expert debates of past decades become an open public discourse about nuclear, environmental and biotechnological risks? What can a cultural and institutional analysis reveal about risks and their social construction? Is it possible to develop a new critical theory of the risk society? This book offers an overview and analysis of nuclear, global environmental and biotechnological dangers, threats and hazards in the context of public debates about risk from the 1950s to the present. It considers what impact these risks and debates are having on society, transforming underlying cultural assumptions (for example about nature) but also public communication, social institutions, and even the way society is organized. Piet Strydom reconstructs public debates and social scientific theories to provide a fresh approach to the risk society. From this comes a new theoretical perspective for studying the emerging social conditions of the twenty-first century. The result is a penetrating and essential text for students and researchers across a range of areas including sociology, environmental studies, politics, and cultural and communications studies.