ABSTRACT
It is widely suggested that contemporary Western society has become obsessed with reducing unnecessary risks (Caplan, 2000; Lupton 1999; Lupton and Tulloch, 2002a), yet the popularity of recreational activities involving voluntary risk-taking, gives credence to Donnelly’s (2004: 30) assertion that society has a ‘curiously ambivalent attitude’ toward risk-taking. Given media coverage of risks over which people have little control, such as antibiotic resistant ‘superbugs’, global warming and terrorism, it has been argued that individuals now focus attention on alleviating danger and risks in events over which they have some control in their everyday lives (Hope, 2005). To this end Furedi (2002: 8) has claimed that in contemporary society safety has become a fundamental value governed by what he has termed the ‘precautionary principle’. The premise of this principle is that one should not take a risk unless the outcome is known in advance. Furedi (ibid.) suggests that this new moral etiquette, based on a heightened level of risk consciousness, ‘is a prescriptive and intrusive morality. It demands that individuals subject themselves to the core value of safety. It encourages behaviour to be cautious and self-limiting. At the same time, it condemns those who put others at risk’ (ibid.: 148).
