Citation

Butler C. Twenty-First Century Society 2008; 3(2): 159-171.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/17450140802062136

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In contemporary western societies, risk approaches to knowing futures provide an important basis for decisions. The paper examines conceptual approaches to risk in relation to knowledge of the future. Drawing on research conducted over the period 2003?06 into institutional discourses about flooding in the UK, it applies these ideas for understanding the challenges in tackling floods for 21st-century societies. An increasing association between flooding and climate change is identified in the UK socio-political and expert discourses entailing distinct risk issues and temporal characteristics that delimit ?knowability? of the future. Finally, the interrelation between flooding and climate change is examined in terms of the implications for socio-political decision-making and enactment of appropriate responses to floods.