Risk, health and parenting culture

In this Editorial, we have three aims. We mainly aim to highlight the key issues raised in the papers that follow, and orient readers to some thematic and methodological connections between them. We have divided the papers into three thematic groups: expert-led constructions of the risk-managing parent; risk society and the development of parental identity with reference to food; and extending 'parenting' backwards. We explain what we mean by these themes and how each paper fits in. We also seek to explain the background to this special issue of Health Risk and Society, and we describe the seminar series that gave rise to it, and make some points about what we mean by the general subject area for that series, 'parenting culture'. Our final objective is to draw attention to a key point that emerges from the research discussed here, namely the importance of 'parenting' as a key site for the development of the risk-centred society and risk-consciousness.