Dr Rebecca Elliott STC S211

This course is compulsory on the MSc in Economy, Risk and Society. This course is available on the MPA in International Development, MPA in Public Policy and Management, MPA in Public and Economic Policy, MPA in Public and Social Policy, MPA in Social Impact, MSc in Environmental Policy and Regulation, MSc in Regulation and MSc in Risk and Finance. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course introduces students to sociological perspectives on economic and societal risks in advanced industrial societies. Topics include the social theory of risk and uncertainty, disaster, regulation and governance, organizational risk management, financialization, technology and material infrastructures, expertise and knowledge production, and transnational and systemic environmental, health, and economic risks. The course will draw upon a broad international literature in economic sociology and the sociology of risk, as well as case studies from the environmental, financial and public health domains.

This course is delivered through a combination of lectures, online materials and seminars totalling a minimum of 40 hours across MT and LT, with 2 hours in ST.

Reading Weeks: Students on this course will have a reading week in MT Week 6 and LT Week 6, in line with departmental policy.

Aspers, P & Dodd, N (eds) (2015) Re-Imagining Economic Sociology (Oxford University Press); Beck, U. (1999) World Risk Society (Cambridge: Polity); Baker, T & Simon, J (eds) (2002) Embracing Risk: The Changing Culture of Insurance and Responsibility (University of Chicago Press); Bernstein, P L (1996) Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk (Princeton University Press); Hutter, B.M. (ed) (2010) Anticipating Risks and Organizing Risk Regulation, Cambridge University Press; Smesler, N. & Swedberg, R. (eds) (2005) The Handbook of Economic Sociology; Bulkeley, H (2014) Transnational Climate Governance (Cambridge University Press); Klinenberg, E (2002) Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago (University of Chicago Press); Ericson, RV, Doyle, A & Barry, D (2003) Insurance as Governance (University of Toronto Press); Hacker, J & O’Leary, A (eds) (2012) Shared Responsibility, Shared Risk: Government, Markets and Social Policy in the Twenty-First Century (Oxford University Press); Krippner, G (2011) Capitalizing on Crisis: The Political Origins of the Rise of Finance (Harvard University Press); Pardo-Guerra, J.P. (2019) Automating Finance: Infrastructures, Engineers, and the Making of Electronic Markets (Oxford University Press); Beckert, J. (2016) Imagined Futures: Fictional Expectations and Capitalist Dynamics (Harvard University Press); MacKenzie, D. (2006) An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets (MIT Press). 

Essay (30%, 3000 words) in the LT.
Essay (70%, 4000 words) in the ST.

An electronic copy of the LT assessed essay, to be uploaded to Moodle, no later than 4.00pm on the first Wednesday of Lent Term.

An electronic copy of the ST assessed essay, to be uploaded to Moodle, no later than 4.00pm on the first Wednesday of Summer Term.

Attendance at all seminars and submission of all set coursework is required.