Description
CAMBRIDGE Cellular Phones Public Fears And A Culture Of Precaution by Adam Burgess
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. 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.