This wide-ranging and concisely written text is devoted to these general questions, exploring issues such as the measurement of risk in its social context, the idea that the mass media or the political opposition always exaggerate risk, and the notion that the advice of the expert is the best we can get as far as risks are concerned. It asks if there are more risks now and whether a certain level of risk is inevitable or even desirable, and considers for example whether interference with nature has led us to a world which is just too full of risks. Each chapter in the book builds towards a basic picture of risk in the contemporary world, and of the place of the concept of risk within the social sciences today.