Some sociologists argue that modern society is a "risk society".  What they mean is that people in our society are increasingly aware of, and influenced by risk information.  Of course, the mass media routinely generates enormous amounts of risk information with extensive coverage of crime, terrorism, disease epidemics, extreme weather events, finanical markets, and so forth.  As well,
the decline of tradition and religion, and rapid pace of technological and cultural change have combined to raise the level of uncertainty in our everyday lives.

Sociologists have identified six general types of risk:  environmental (e.g., global warming), medical (e.g., SARS), economic (e.g., unemployment), lifestyle (e.g., stress), criminal (e.g., terrorism), and interpersonal (e.g., divorce, abuse). Of these, interpersonal risks, or risks and uncertainties associated with our closest social relationships and roles such as cohabitation, marriage, parenting and the family are the focus of our research.  Over the next  6 months my research collaborator (Dr. Kari Brozowski) and I will be organizing several small group discussions about interpersonal risk and personal interviews on elder abuse.  We expect these discussions to last around 2 hours each and we will pay participants  $30 for their time for the focus groups, and 20$ for their time for the interviews dealing with elder abuse.  If you live in the North Bay area and would like to participate in one of these small-group discussions (on risk and relationships) or personal interviews (on elder abuse) please contact me at 474-3461 ext. 4354, or Kari at 474-3461 ext. 4232.  Remember, if you choose to participate in our research your anonymity and confidentiality are assured.

For further information or if you want to participate  click here

If you wish to view my homepage click here

If you wish to view my research collaborator's homepage (Kari Brozowski) click here

If you wish to contact Kari Brozowski click here