Introduction

Abstract

In scholarly and public debate, risk-taking is a disputed concept. Risk-taking is considered an exceptional as well as an ordinary activity; an expression of vulnerability as much as a means to challenge and overcome social boundaries; it is considered a part of human nature as well as a socially shaped activity. Experts have been puzzled why and how people sometimes take risks which seem unreasonable at a first glance. This chapter positions the book in the broader debate on risk-taking and argues for an interpretivist approach aiming to reconstructing the meaning of risk-taking and how it is shaped by social forces and individual experience. It gives an overview of the book structure and argument.