The likelihood of possible outcomes as a result of a particular action or reaction. Technically speaking, the likely outcomes of risks can be assessed as a series of different odds, while there is no calculation of probabilities in uncertainty. ‘Social scientists have long argued that risk is socially constructed…the interpretation of physical threats is not just a subjective process engaged in by individuals but is also strongly affected by mores, norms, values, institutions, and other influences on choice that are held in common by members of social groups. By these means the almost infinite number of physical risks that inhabit our world is prioritized to facilitate collective action’ (Mitchell (2007) AAAG 97, 2). See J. Kasperson and R. Kasperson (2005). Herrick (2005) Area 37, 3, in a study of risk perception and GM food, writes that ‘what science deems to be an acceptable level of risk may not match the social perception of acceptability. When the differences between social and scientific notions of risk become acute, then the outcome is a “social amplification of risk” by the public.’ Wakefield and Elliott (2003) Prof. Geogr. 55, 2 suggest that risk messages are chosen and shaped by journalists on the basis of the pressures they themselves are under, and that, while newspapers were a major source of risk information, their impact was mitigated by readers’ distrust, and access to their own personal information networks. Watson and Stratford (2008) Soc. & Cult. Geog. 9, 4 recognize three socio-spatial orderings of risk (displacement, replacement, and reorientation). Risk analysis identifies the level of hazard in an area, and estimates the probability of occurrence of future risk (Chung and Fabbri (2008) Geomorph. 94, 3–4). See Hungr et al. (2008) Geomorph. 96, 3–4 on quantitative risk analysis.