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The eminent sociologist explores our capacity to manage risk and change. He also considers how rumours are spread and how media, policy think tanks and online groups influence our perception of anything from cuts in public service to terrorist threats and health scares. Frank shows that whilst fear will not go away, confronting it endows you with a powerful clarity of purpose. In alternative presentations he explores what’s new about the generation gap, and what binds us all together.
Frank Furedi is Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent. He is an expert in the different manifestations of risk consciousness. His research looks at the relationship between diminishing cultural authority and society's capacity to manage risk and change.
Furedi looks at how knowledge intermediaries - alternative research organisations, advocacy groups, NGOs, think tanks, and Internet based research groups - play an important role in influencing public perception, especially in relation to the framing of disasters.
Exploring the structure of rumours in risk related episodes and controversies, from terrorism to MMR to sudden floods, he looks at how rumours are spread in order to help businesses and government departments contain and control such developments in future.
Frank Furedi has written several books, including Populism and the European Culture Wars - arguing that the recent outburst of anti-populist anxiety reflects a loss of faith in democracy, and Politics of Fear, which arguing for a new concept of politics away from traditional labels of left and right. Other books include Where Have all the Intellectuals Gone, Therapy Culture and The Silent War.
