The Cultural Theory of risk: an application on tsunami risk perception in different italian coastal slopes and regions

Cultural theory of risk (CT) consists of a conceptual framework and associated body of empirical studies that seek to explain social perception and conflict about risk. Cultural theory states that structures of social organization provide individuals with perceptions that reinforce those structures in competition with alternative ones. This theory was elaborated for the first time in the book Natural Symbols, written by the anthropologist Mary Douglas in 1970 and subsequently developed by Douglas herself in collaboration with the political scientist Aaron Wildavsky. Over the years, cultural theory has given rise to a different set of program researches that span multiple social science disciplines and which in recent years have been used to analyze political conflicts and, in general, risk perceptions. Our research team tried to apply the conceptual framework and the empirical studies of CT to the perception of tsunami risk in different Italian coastal slopes. For this reason, Through work on operationalizing the concepts postulated only theoretically by Douglas and Wildasky, a section of the questionnaire used to survey tsunami risk perception of the Italian coastal population was developed. Starting from the data collected in the latest surveys carried out from 2019-2021, using a battery of CT questions, in this paper the perception of tsunami risk is compared in different coastal slopes and Italian regions (e.g.: Calabria-Apulia-Sicily). The study will include the creation of a synthetic index from the variables that make up the CT section of the questionnaire to conduct the analysis In conclusion, this work is aimed to draw some indications to understand whether and if tsunami risk perception changes in different regions / coastal areas and to what extent depending on the culture and social organization of reference.