Public attitudes towards nuclear power in the UK have historically been deeply divided, but as concern about climate change and energy security has exerted an increasing influence on British energy policy, nuclear power has been reframed as a low-carbon technology. Previous research has...

Scientific momentum is increasing behind efforts to develop geoengineering options, but it is widely acknowledged that the challenges of geoengineering are as much political and social as they are technical. Legislators are looking for guidance on the governance of geoengineering research and...

Along with climate change and affordability, concerns about energy security are key drivers behind proposals for major energy system change in the UK and numerous other countries. Unlike climate change we know very little about how the public thinks and feels about this aspect of sustainability...

In the UK there has been a gradual transition in both the framing of flooding as a policy issue and the strategies employed to achieve policy objectives. This has involved a widely recognised shift from policies of ‘flood defence’ to ‘flood risk management’ (FRM), entailing both changes...

Communications from scientists and engineers indicate concern about the potential for public aversion to nanotechnologies. Recommendations that policy dialogues occur early and often as public perceptions emerge have followed, and multiple surveys indicate high benefit ratings. This paper...

This mixed methodology study examines public attitudes to risk and its management during the 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) epidemic in Britain. A quantitative survey and qualitative focus groups were conducted to examine how two communities (Norwich and Bude) responded to the crisis. People...

Although levels of concern and awareness about climate change have been rising in many nations over the past 20 years, climate change remains of low importance relative to other global or personal issues. Powerful contextual barriers act to prevent public engagement with it, such as...

The paper examines the ways in which citizens negotiate responsibility in relation to various environmental and technological risks. It focuses on the role of agency and the way that this figures in constructions of <i>relations of responsibility</i> between individuals and institutions. A central...