The semantic field of risk

A recurring theoretical focus in risk and safety research is the analysis of certain concepts of special interest (e.g. the concepts of risk, safety, and hazard) and how they are related. Together, related concepts form networks sometimes referred to as 'semantic fields'. In this paper, the semantic field of risk is identified and analysed. Based on dictionaries, thesauri, and other lexicological resources, 244 words related to the concept of risk are identified. These words are classified into 25 specific categories based on their type of semantic relationship to the risk concept. Based on this semantic field analysis, three implications for risk and safety research are discussed: (i) the merit of an extensive and general overview of a conceptual field (previously subject to only partial and scattered treatment) for future analysis, (ii) methodological consequences for the study of social processes addressing risk and safety issues, and (iii) the opportunity for cross-cultural comparison.