This book is about risk conceptions, experiences and reflections. It applies the concept of the risk triangle, with its societal, organisational and personal angles, to two areas of inquiry: financial markets and the military, seeking to demonstrate the challenges, dilemmas and, in many ways, also the impossibilities of risk analysis and risk management. Drawing on empirical and micro- and macro-level analysis, this innovative work will appeal to students of political science, economics and business as well as to risk professionals and risk-takers.
Author(s): Marc Schelhase
Series: International Political Economy Series
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 185
City: Cham
Acknowledgements
Permissions
Contents
Abbreviations
List of Figures
1 All You Need to Know About Risk as a Social Construct (Almost)
1 Introduction
2 Thinking About Risk
2.1 Risk and Uncertainty
2.2 Risk as Context
3 The Risk Triangle
4 How to Read This Book
Notes
References
Part I Risk and Finance
2 ‘Houses Were Builded Upon Money…’: Homeownership, the Individualisation of Risk and Social Harm
1 Introduction
2 Social Harm: A Heuristic Framework16 to Problematise the Privileging of Homeownership
2.1 Conceptualising Social Harm
2.2 Operationalising Social Harm
3 Dimensions of Harm: Homeownership in the UK
3.1 Financial/economic Harm: Towards an Asset-Based Welfare Society
3.2 The Illusion of Cultural Safety: ‘My House is My Pension, My Savings Account, My Social Care Plan…’
3.3 Physical, Emotional and Psychological Harm: ‘… Where Are the Masterpieces that This Planning System Has Tried to Provide? …. Instead We Have Awful Pieces of Urban Dereliction’89
4 Conclusion: Bringing the Harm Home—Realities of Homeownership
5 Postscript
Notes
References
3 Individuals Make Decisions, Not Organisations: Insights and Challenges to Organisational Risk Management
1 Introduction
2 Studying Risk in a Large UK-Based Financial Organisation
2.1 The Fieldwork: Context, Experiences and Methodological Considerations
2.2 Bricks & Mortar’s Risk Journey
2.3 Exploring Organisational Challenges and Changes: The Risk Life of an Organisation
2.3.1 Dimensions of Risk
2.3.2 Risk and Culture: Accountability, Responsibility and (the Avoidance of) Blame
2.3.3 Risk Governance
2.3.4 Forecasting and Strategic Planning
3 Conclusion: ‘[T]here used to be a big thing about, I want to be world class and best practice, but I killed that’120
Notes
References
Part II Risk and the Military
4 ‘Reason is just one letter away from treason’: Exploring Risk in Defence Procurement
1 Introduction
2 The Defence Acquisition Challenge: Key Aspects
3 ‘Every age has its own type of war’12: From Traditional Conceptions of Security to the Management of Risk
4 Strategic Trends and Alternative Futures: The Defence Acquisition Challenge
4.1 Approaches to Thinking About Uncertainty…
4.2 … And Their Challenges
5 Strategic Trends, Capability Requirements and the Defence Budget Challenge—Procuring an Air Deployable Medium-Weight Armoured Vehicle for the British Army
5.1 The Programme—A Brief Overview63
5.2 The Acquisition Challenges in the Case of MRAV/‘Boxer’ and FRES
6 Conclusion: A Never-Ending Story?100
Notes
References
5 Realities of Conflict: Risk and Military Decision-Makers
1 Introduction
2 Risk: A (Very) Brief Introduction12
3 Risk and Military Decision-Makers
3.1 Societal Risk Dynamics
3.2 Organisational Risk Dynamics
3.3 Personal Risk Dynamics
4 Conclusion: Realities of Risk
5 Postscript
Notes
References
6 Thinking Critically About Risk: The Dynamics of the Risk Triangle
1 The Everyday Challenges of Living with and Through Risk
2 Risk Life
Notes
References
Appendix
Research Methodology
References
Index
