Cellular Phones, Public Fears, and a Culture of Precaution

by Adam Burgess

Overview

Adam Burgess' study is the first account of the health panic surrounding cellular phones that developed in the mid 1990s. Explaining that the related health anxieties had little substantial basis, Burgess traces the origins of the panic and how and why it grew so significantly in some societies, but not in others. The book also outlines a history and sociology of the cell phone, and compares popular reactions to other technologies, such as x-rays and radar.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521520829
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	08/18/2003
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.71(d)

Table of Contents

1. Introductory chapter: themes, 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.

Editorial Reviews

"A masterful treatment of an important but very neglected subject." New Media & Society

From the Publisher