Professional Risk: from Realism to Constructivism

Professional Risk:
from Realism to Constructivism


Solomin M.S.

postgraduate student of National Research University «Higher School of Economics», Moscow, Russia msolomin@hse.ru

ID of the Article: 7654


For citation:

Solomin M.S. Professional Risk: from Realism to Constructivism. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2019. No 5. P. 45-54




Abstract

The article is devoted to the conceptualization of the idea of professional or occupational risk in the context of risk sociology. Assuming there is opposing epistemological positions for studying risk in sociology, the author identifies two approaches to the conceptualization of occupational risk: realistic and constructivist. In the first case, professional risk is interpreted as the likelihood of a real threat and possible damage to employees due to the impact on them of harmful production factors of different genesis. In the second case, professional risk is understood as possible decisions (actions) of an actor that are caused, on the one hand, by the framework of the profession’s «life world» (knowledge, skills, experience, norms). On the other hand the actor’s views on the possible costs/benefits are shaped in the course of professional activities. Author demonstrates the research perspectives and limitations of each of these approaches by referring to several examples from empirical sociological research.


Keywords
professional risk; realism; constructivism; sociology of risk

References

Abramov R.N. (2005) Professional Complex in the Social Structure of Society. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. No. 1: 54–66. (In Russ.)

Abramov R.N. (2014) Classification of Research Areas in the Study of Occupations and Professions. Sociological Yearbook, 2013–2014. Ed. by N. Pokrovsky, D. Efremenko. Moscow: 83–104. (In Russ.)

Beсhmann G. (2010) Modern Society: Risk Society, Information Society, Knowledge Society. Moscow: Logos. (In Russ.)

Carson D., Bain A. (2008) Professional Risk and Working with People: Decision-making in Health, Social Care and Criminal Justice. London; Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Concha­-Barrientos M. et al. (2004) Selected Occupational Risk Factors. Comparative Quantification of Health Risks: Global and Regional Burden of Disease Attributable to Selected Major Risk Factors. Geneva: World Health Organization: 1651–1801.

Cooper M.D., Phillips R.A. (2004) Exploratory Analysis of the Safety Climate and Safety Behavior Relationship. Journal of Safety Research. Vol. 35. No. 5: 497–512.

Dean M. (1998) Risk, Calculable and Incalculable. Nuremberg: Soziale Welt. Desmond M. (2006) Becoming a Firefighter. Ethnography. Vol. 7. No. 4: 387–421.

Devlicharova R.Y. et al. (2014) The Research of Occupational Risks of Nursing Assistants: Interdisciplinary Approach to the Study of Health Risks. Saratovskiy nauchno-meditsinskij zhurnal [Saratov Journal of Medical Scientific Research]. Vol. 10. No. 4: 674–680. (In Russ.)

Douglas M., Wildavsky A. (1982) Risk and Culture. An Essay on the Selection of Technical and Environmental Dangers. Berkley; Los Angeles: Univ. of California Press.

Ewald F. (1991) Insurance and Risk. In: The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 197–211.

Foucault M. (2011) Security, Territory, Population. The Course of Lectures Delivered at Collège de France in the 1977–1978 School Year. Saint­Petersburg: Nauka. (In Russ.)

Gavrilov K.A. (2007) The Sociological Approach to Risk Analysis. Sotsiologicheskiy zhurnal [Sociological Journal]. No. 3: 40–58. (In Russ.)

Hughes E.Ch. (2008) Errors at Work. Zhurnal issledovaniy sotsial'noy politiki [The Journal of Social Policy Studies]. 2008. Vol. 6. No. 3: 385–396. (In Russ.)

Ivanov A.V. (2015) Epistemological Problems of Risk Theory in the Context of the Formation of Research Programs of Social Risk. Nauka i sovremennost' [Science and Modernity]. No. 37–2: 70–76. (In Russ.)

Luhmann N. (1994) The Concept of Risk. THESIS. No. 5: 135–160. (In Russ.)

Luksha O.V. (2003) Sociology of Professional Groups: the Definition of Concepts. In: Mansurov V.A. (ed.) Professional Groups of Intelligentsia. Moscow: Izd­vo Instituta sotsiologii RAN: 61–79. (In Russ.)

Lupton D. et al. (1999) Risk and Sociocultural Theory: New Directions and Perspectives. London; New York: Cambridge University Press.

Menger P.M. (1999). Artistic Labor Markets and Careers. Annual Review of Sociology. Vol. 25. No. 1: 541–574.

Parsons T. (1968) Professions. In: International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. New York: The Macmillan Company & The Free Press: 536–547.

Romanov P.V., Yarskaya­Smirnova E.R. (2009) The World of Professions: a Revision of Analytical Perspectives. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. No. 8: 25–35. (In Russ.)

Short J.F. (1990). Hazards, Risks, and Enterprise: Approaches to Science, Law, and Social Policy. Law & Society Review. Vol. 24. No. 1: 179–198.

Slovic P. (1992) Perceptions of Risk: Reflections on the Psychometric Paradigm. Social Theories of Risk. London; New York: Praeger: 117–152.

Whittaker D., Hart G. (1996) Research Note: Managing Risks: the Social Organization of Indoor Sex Work. Sociology of Health & Illness. Vol. 18. No. 3: 399–414.

Zubkov V.I. (2003) Sociological Theory of Risk. Moscow: Izd­vo RUDN. (In Russ.)

Content No 5, 2019