Mid Sweden University

In this article, we propose a perspective on risk that stresses its moral character and normalising functions. By focusing on the 'doing' of risk, we explore the ways that risk discourses are entangled with the 'doing' of class and gender, opening up an analysis of the power dimension in risk. Taking the example of food risk as a starting point, we argue that, while previous research has shown that what we eat is a way of positioning ourselves in relation to others, in a time when risk has come to represent different values and beliefs - it as such is a site where power relations are mobilised and enacted. Risk clearly plays an important role in disassociating particular interests from their specific locations, leaving them to all appearances universal and neutral. The challenge, however, is not merely to demystify such processes, but also to find ways of using them to take theory and research methods in challenging directions. We therefore propose an analysis of the performativities of risk, with a focus on the ways that the 'doing' and 'undoing' of risk may be used as a means of distinction in a symbolic struggle over value and moral worth.