TY  - CHAP
A1  - Kramm, Johanna
A1  - Völker, Carolin
A2  - Wagner, Martin
A2  - Lambert, Scott
T1  - Understanding the risks of microplastics : a social-ecological risk perspective
T2  - Martin Wagner ; Scott Lambert (Hrsg.): Freshwater microplastics : emerging environmental contaminants?, The handbook of environmental chemistry ; 58
N2  - The diagnosis that we are living in a world risk society formulated by Ulrich Beck 20 years ago (Beck, Kölner Z Soziol Sozialpsychol 36:119–147, 1996) has lost nothing of its power, especially against the background of the Anthropocene debate. “Global risks” have been identified which are caused by human activities, technology, and modernization processes. Microplastics are a by-product of exactly these modernization processes, being distributed globally by physical processes like ocean currents, and causing effects far from their place of origin. In recent years, the topic has gained great prominence, as microplastics have been discovered nearly everywhere in the environment, raising questions about the impacts on food for human consumption. But are microplastics really a new phenomenon or rather a symptom of an old problem? And exactly what risks are involved? It seems that the phenomenon has accelerated political action—the USA has passed the Microbead-Free Waters Act 2015—and industries have pledged to fade out the use of microbeads in their cosmetic products. At first sight, is it a success for environmentalists and the protection of our planet?
This chapter deals with these questions by adopting a social-ecological perspective, discussing microplastics as a global risk. Taking four main characteristics of global risks, we develop four arguments to discuss (a) the everyday production of risk by societies, (b) scientific risk evaluation of microplastics, (c) social responses, and (d) problems of risk management. To illustrate these four issues, we draw on different aspects of the current scientific and public debate. In doing so, we contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the social-ecological implications of microplastics.
KW  - Global risk
KW  - Problem structuring
KW  - Risk assessment
KW  - Social ecology
KW  - Uncertainty
Y1  - 2017
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/45180
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-451806
SN  - 978-3-319-61614-8
SN  - 978-3-319-61615-5
SN  - 3-319-61614-5
SN  - 1867-979X
SN  - 1616-864X
N1  - © The Author(s) 2018. Open Access: This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.
SP  - 223
EP  - 237
PB  - Springer International Publishing AG
CY  - Cham, Switzerland
ER  -