Cellular phones, public fears, and a culture of precaution

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Title:

Cellular phones, public fears, and a culture of precaution

Author:

Burgess, Adam.

ISBN:

9780521817592

9780521520829

Personal Author:

Burgess, Adam.

Publication Information:

New York : Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Physical Description:

x, 301 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.

Contents:

1. Themes and Influences; Phones and Risk -- 2. The Mobile "Revolution" -- 3. Mobile Discontents and the Origins of Microwave Fears -- 4. Radiating Uncertainty -- 5. Diffusing Anxiety: International Dissemination and National Responses to Mobile Fears -- 6. The Culture of Precaution -- 7. Problems of Precaution and Responsibility.

Abstract:

"This book is the first account of the health panic surrounding cellular phones and their supporting network of transmitting towers that developed in the mid-1990s. Treating the issue as more "social construction" than evident scientific problem, it tells the story of how this originally American anxiety diffused internationally, having an even bigger impact in countries such as Italy. Burgess highlights the contrasting reactions to the issue ranging from positive indifference in Finland to those such as in the United Kingdom, where precautionary measures were taken."--BOOK JACKET.

Subject Term:

Cell phones -- Health aspects.

Low-level radiation -- Health aspects.

Copies:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Copy	Status
Searching... 1:IIEMSA	1:GEN-BOOK	33168015726561	363.189 B955C 2004	1	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

This is the first account of the health panic surrounding cellular phones that developed in the mid-1990s. Treating the issue as more 'social construction' than evident scientific problem, it tells the story of how this originally American anxiety diffused internationally, having an even bigger impact in countries such as Italy. Burgess highlights the contrasting reactions to the issue ranging from positive indifference in Finland to those such as the UK where precautionary measures were taken. These differences are located within the emergence of a precautionary culture driven by institutional insecurity that first appeared in the US and is now most evident in Europe. Anxieties about cell phone radiowaves are also situated historically in the very different reactions to technologies such as x-rays and in the more similar 'microwave suspicions' about television. In addition, Burgess outlines a history and sociology of what is, despite media-driven anxieties, a spectacularly successful device.