We live in a runaway world. New patterns of risk and uncertainty threaten the stability of our traditional institutions. To make sense of these profound changes in our lives, and invent new politics for the twenty-first century, we must understand the dynamic forces which are transforming our society.

The Politics of Risk Society opens a dialog between Ulrich Beck's sociology of Risk Society and key thinkers and opinion leaders from the world of politics and policy making. It explores the way we perceive risk and integrate change into our lives - insisting that these are essential forces driving policy development today.

A new politics must engage actively with people's lived experience. Contributions from Ulrich Beck, Anthony Giddens, Susie Orbach, John Gray, Ray Pahl, Martin Woollacott, Anna Coote, Patricia Hewitt and others explore the daily experience of risk - from intimate relationships to global warming - and offer their analysis and insight into how we understand this changing world.

This book captures part of the spirit of the age and will be of absorbing interest to students of sociology, politics and social policy.

Jane Franklin is Research Fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research