Teorie vnímání rizik: od psychologie k sociologii mezi daným a konstrukcí

Risk perception, as it is related to the fundamental concept of risk, poses an important research problem and its constitution represents a question difficult to answer. The theoretical field is therefore fragmented and the theories differ even in the basic assumptions about the reality of risk. The most influential psychological, cultural, and social theories of risk perception are introduced with emphasis on environmental risks and in relation to their assumptions of either constructed or objective reality of risk. These premises have serious implications for policy and decision making and for the role public perception of risk plays in it, as well as in the valuation of the public perceptions in the process of social construction of risk. The plurality of theoretical approaches used to tackle the problem of risk perception is, despite its obvious drawbacks, argued as beneficial, especially in relation to the complexity of risk and its perception and the dangers of inadequate reductionism. The need for interdisciplinarity and a critical debate between particular approaches is advocated and the problems that environmental risks pose to the risk perception research are discussed.