Conceptual Foundations

Abstract

After synthesising claims about the risk of a range of relevant sociological theories, we aim for an open approach which allows addressing different and changing meanings of risk in social debates. We argue that language reflects both public debates about risk and long-term social change. We argue that frequency counting of lexical items cannot provide insights into the shifting meaning of risk. Therefore, we introduce elements of frame semantics and systemic functional linguistics Systemic functional Linguistics , in order to make possible a systematic linking of the lexical and grammatical behaviour of risk words to meaning and discourse. In this way, key elements of sociological theory can be operationalised as sets of search queries and computational methods, making possible an empirical approach to sociological claims about risk.