Risk entanglement and the social relationality of risk

Relational accounts of risk explain variation in risk perception through situated cognitions defining risk as a relationship between "risk objects" and "objects at risk." This paper extends this approach to include not only the relational constitution of cognitive risk objects but also of the different actors assessing risk. Risk is relational because it establishes a link between two different cognitive objects and between two (or more) actors. This occurs when at least two actors refer to a common risk object while retaining distinct objects at risk, termed risk entanglement. Data from 68 qualitative interviews and ethnographic fieldwork in the German finance-state nexus illustrates how risk entanglement affects and transforms the fundamental logics of these fields.

Christian von Scheve, Markus Lange