Risk Discourse and Responsibility

The widespread view that risk is highly relevant in late modern societies has also meant that the very study of risk has become central in many areas of social studies. The key aim of this book is to establish Risk Discourse as a field of research of its own in language studies. Risk Discourse is introduced as a field that not only targets elements of risk, safety and security, but crucially requires aspects of responsibility for in-depth analysis. Providing a rich illustration of ways in which risk and responsibility can serve as analytical tools, the volume brings together scholars from different disciplines within the study of language. An Introduction and an Epilogue highlight the intricate relationship between risk and responsibility. Part 1 deals with expert and lay perspectives on risk; Part 2 with emerging genres for risk discourse; Part 3 with risk and technology and Part 4 with ways of managing risk. The topics covered – such as COVID-19, nuclear energy, machine translation, terrorism – are socially pertinent and timely.

Tetsuta Komatsubara's chapter on "Framing risk metaphorically: Changes in metaphors of COVID-19 over time in Japanese", which is chapter 3 in the volume, won the Maenosono Young Researcher’s Award in 2024 as the best paper of each graduate school of Kobe University: https://www.kobe-u.ac.jp/ja/announcement/20240716-65819/