Communicating Risk

Review 1 - Prof Claire Penn, University of the Witwatersrand General I have read the prospectus provided to me as well as the Table of contents Risk is a fascinating topic in the modern world and one which attracts the interest of multiple disciplines. This project specifically wishes to explores risk as a global phenomenon in an inter- domain and inter-site perspective. It more than adequately engages with recent scholarship and I believe will make be a lasting resource to those interested in discourse as well as to global practitioners in multiple domains. This probably therefore qualifies either as a handbook or an upper level text. If the former it probably could be extended in length. Proposal The challenge for a text of this nature is of course to select the focus and to integrate the numerous contributions into cohesive themes. This 20- chapter proposed volume is carefully and logically organized . There is definitely an international feel to this volume and the authors represent a variety of different disciplines and perspectives. The prospectus is explicit , detailed and extremely well motivated . Target audiences are clearly described and I believe there is a very realistic delineation of possible interested readers I really like the detailed description of content and organization and am confident that the main aspects of risk highlighted will enable the contributing authors to frame cohesive chapters which will link well to the overarching goals of the volume . The interface between practice and research is a critical part of this enterprise and I believe that there is a good balance here which should appeal to students and practitioners. In terms of the chapters proposed, I see immediately the challenge to any Editors - one of balancing the sections and of deciding how to manage potential overlaps. In relation to the latter, I am confident that the editors will be well placed to handle this in editorial comments. In terms of balance at present, there are between three to five chapters in each section . Though necessarily distinct there are potential areas of overlap which could be highlighted or possibly subsumed into a separate section. My own particular bias may show here . As my specialization is in the area of health I have seen the need over the past decade for much more communication between domains and disciplines within the health sector for example. For instance I have a feeling that the developmental aspect of risk might be interesting to explore and I do feel that some more perspectives on intercultural communication might be useful theme to highlight. One of the areas that I have encountered for example has been in genetic counselling and conveying risk which might be an interesting aspect to explored as it very clearly highlights some of the broader themes alluded to in the prospectus. The other issues , has been the high risk taking of adolescents especially in the light of the HIV Aids epidemic in sub- Saharan Africa and its demographic profile. A possible link presents itself for foregrounding potential differences between the global north and global south in risk identification and management and some of the gender differences that present themselves in such data . Sections 1 and 2 in this regard and obviously Sections 3 and 5 on mediating risk has overlap here have no doubt that such themes are already present. And I applaud the proposed focus on risk is a social and cultural category and a construct contextually located. The selected contributors appear eminently suited for this volume - their collective experience and records suggest that this will be a profoundly fruitful collaboration . The main editors (whose work is well known to me) are in my opinion ideally suited for this publication. I enjoyed reading the abstracts of each intended contribution and see their potential to link well to the overarching themes of the book and to each other . Market and Competition The editors have carefully described the current field and relevant publications which exist. There is no question that the volume proposed is unique in its identity and I am in full agreement with the niche that this volume attempts to fill. I agree that the volume's focus on the relationship bbetween discourse data and the identification and characterisation of RISK, together with its inter-professional and practice focus is profoundly novel . The text would certainly be suitable for students and will certainly have interdisciplinary and international appeal. Recommendation Taking into account some of my comments above (which should be considered as optional points rather than recommendations) . I would strongly recommend the publication of this volume and very much look forward to reading it Review 2 - Prof Heidi Hamilton, Georgetown University General As with previously published work by these scholars, the book project Communicating Risk as proposed by Christopher N. Candlin, Jonathan Crichton and Arthur S. Firkins will contribute, when completed, in very important ways to research undertaken within and across myriad disciplines and professions at the intersection of communication and risk. I agree completely with the editors that 'issues of risk are foundational to people's lives in contemporary societies,' but that existing published work on these issues has focused insufficiently on 'how such risk is communicatively and jointly constructed through personal interaction employing various modalities and in particular contexts of use.' To address this significant gap, Candlin, Crichton and Firkins have commissioned a very impressive group of key practitioners and leading scholars to examine the communication of risk within the domains of social care, healthcare, legal processes, environmental management and biosecurity, and, further, to illuminate how risk is mediated and regulated within and across these areas. The editors are leaders in the investigation of risk and communication, having published seminal work more than a decade ago in the journals Research on Language and Social Interaction (2002) and Health, Risk and Society (2003) and are therefore perfectly positioned to successfully execute this important project. Market and Competition 1) Who would you anticipate the main readership of this book to be (in terms of field and level)? Main readership will include upper level undergraduate students, graduate students, researchers and practitioners across a wide variety of professions and disciplines. Because risk is an inherent part of human activity, an exploration of this phenomenon as it unfolds in real time through communication in a variety of modalities will be very appealing and attractive to a large and varied readership. 2) Would this title be suitable for the student market as a core text? If so, would you adopt/recommend this book for any courses you teach? Except for specific courses on the topic of risk, the proposed volume is more likely to be used as supplementary course reading. I would certainly adopt the volume for my graduate courses on Institutional Discourse, Cross-Disciplinary Discourse Analysis, along with individual chapters of the volume for my courses on Health Discourse and Intertextuality. 3) Is this book likely to have interdisciplinary and/or international appeal? Absolutely. It will clearly have both interdisciplinary and international appeal, as the phenomenon of risk crosses all disciplinary and international borders. 4) Would this title be suitable/essential reading for a practitioner or policymakers market? If so, please let us know if there are any organisations, institutions or professional networks that would be interested in the work. Yes, it is certainly likely that the volume will become important reading for practitioners and policymakers who attempt to avoid, assess, mediate, and manage risk, especially within interdisciplinary teams. Relevant organizations include The Professional Risk Managers International Association and the Institute of Risk Management, to name just two. 5) How does this proposal compare to the main competing titles in this area? No competitor in this area provides the breadth of disciplinary and professional perspectives from so many methodological approaches to issues at the intersection of communication and risk. Recommendation 6) Would you recommend: a) we publish this book as it stands or after minor revisions b) revising the proposal and resubmitting c) rejecting the proposal I recommend the publication of the edited volume Communicating Risk as proposed by Candlin, Crichton and Firkins. This book will engage advanced students, researchers and practitioners of discourse analysis, applied linguistics, organizational and institutional studies, communication studies, social psychology, and sociology of work with a thought provoking set of issues and contexts. The editors are eminently prepared to carry out the work as promised in a timely way, although the proposed date of delivery of December 2014 is almost certainly too optimistic given the large number (28) of authors involved and the stature of these authors (which almost certainly means they are working on multiple projects simultaneously). Thank you for inviting me to review this exciting proposal. I look forward to reading and using the volume immediately upon its publication! Response to Reviews We have gone through them both and the main point in the review without the Palgrave letterhead seems to be the need to include a chapter which focuses on intercultural communication in the healthcare delivery area. We are very sensitive to this and fully agree with the Reviewer's point. We think we can address this issue with an extra chapter and either of the two foci the Reviewer suggests would be fine. Chris has extensive experience in HIV/AIDS issues on risk in Hong Kong and knows the field but there are other sites and more current people, for example in RSA, we are familiar with. We do not think it would be difficult to engage such a new chapter from an additional author(s). We think also that with careful editing we will try to keep the length under that already nominated in the proposal. We would work to achieve that if possible.