Risk, Uncertainty and Government (Glasshouse)

Previously, sectoral differences in nine regulatory regimes have been analysed in the UK context by Hood et al. The workshop papers brought up two more, intriguing spatial issues: On the one hand, the issue of multi-level governance was highlighted Bernauer and Caduff, This features strongly in papers by Ariani and Schlag in particular, with an emphasis on global economy. On the other hand, there are some policy areas where national jurisdictions matter most.

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Several papers on the British case demonstrate how risks and uncertainty are governed and perceived by stakeholders in fields such as urban planning Hillier and Gunn, , health care services Bennett, and social care Brown, Britain is a particularly interesting case that has attracted a lot of scholarly attention. Authors have highlighted the limitations of risk-based diagnostic toolkits and targets prescribed by regulatory bodies.

These targets have been argued to de-motivate frontline staff, stifle innovation and create an environment where gaming can be exercised Bevan and Hood, Similarly, Lloyd-Bostock and Hutter critically views the appropriateness of risk-based regulation in policy sectors such as health care, as questions of public trust and confidence are crucial in those service areas. Jean Hillier and Zan Gunn present urban planning as a case whereby the UK government expects local authorities to take on limited risk through experimentation.

Louise Brown also emphasises the need for a more open and analytical debate about risks involved in social care which could promote a risk-taking, innovative, approach. This echoes discussions about risk and uncertainty, reaching back to contributions of Frank Knight and recently reiterated by Peter Bernstein The questions here are how much risk-based approach permeated other countries and to what extent and under which conditions the UK experiences can be transferrable.

While there is an emerging global polity with concerted effort by international organisations in this area, there are plural models and plural narratives on governing uncertainties. It is therefore imperative to study the institutional and cultural conditions under which certain forms of uncertainty governance emerge Lodge and Hood, ; Black, Traditionally, only few sources of voice mattered, namely those of experts that would — through scientific assessments — reduce uncertainty, converting it into governable risk.

However, as Olivier Borraz has pointedly summarised, this approach has been challenged in industrialised countries over the past decades, with the rise of social movements and the decline of deference to authorities. Moreover, old and new media and information channels have increasingly enabled citizens to act as voices of counter-expertise in spite of the often highly technical dimension and its supposedly non-political character.

One way of rearranging governance of uncertainty to accommodate a plurality of voices and the uncertainty of issues has been observed by Olivier Borraz These allow for open-ended deliberations including multiple types of knowledge beyond scientific expert knowledge, and serve as on ongoing resonance body for risk perceptions and governance requirements. This reflects a broader trend in literature on more deliberative forums, participative policy instruments and programs has been pointed out Barber, ; Fung, ; Fischer, The lack of receptiveness of governments, established sciences and the media provide some evidence for this pessimism.

For instance, the public may reveal new sources of harm, blame those responsible, and even embark on litigation processes Felstiner, Abel and Sarat, It is also important to take note of the moral dimension of risk see Ewald, , , linking substantive issues such as responsibility, moral judgement, principles of justice and equity, as well as accountability. This concern about public controversies and their impact on legitimacy is sometimes addressed by government through paying lip-service to open-ended, participatory processes e.

De Graaff suggests that the neglect is mainly due to the inability of experts to measure and detect the causes and presence of pain. Nevertheless, the government only heard expert voices in their final decision. It was only after years of sustained protest and the successive change of government that voices from local citizens and dissenting experts were finally recognised and reflected in a policy shift, without however resulting in a new, more participatory institutional mechanism for future environmental conflicts. Beyond these case studies highlighting the continuation of dominant voices in the system, the paper by Schiffino and Jacob raised a conceptual dilemma of the definition of political citizenship.

The authors point out potential problems affecting political agency of citizens once citizens become part of the process. When citizens are invited to voice their concerns and integrated into the decision-making process, they feel constrained to hold policy-makers accountable for the results, as they formally participated in the decision making.

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This raises an important question as to the function of citizens in a democratic polity: Are these two roles mutually compatible or exclusive? This is a particularly relevant question in the context of complex governance decisions concerning uncertainty. Finally, in contrast to a sole reliance on voices of politicians, bureaucrats and experts, integration of competing voices, especially from citizens, seems desirable.

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This illustrates the importance of situating different voices within specific socio-economic, cultural and institutional contexts. Inspired by Callon and Latour approach, her research shows the interplay between many players, such as ordinary citizens, non-governmental organizations NGO , businessmen involvement, and private companies. While all government in one way or another subscribe to more participation, this does not necessarily imply an adequate response to the transformation of society. Reflexivity is at the very heart of the transformation of industrial society to a risk society, which Beck suggests.

In this context, reflexivity means that individuals become aware of the contradictions and limitations of the industrial society, their institutions and instruments. Critical reflections have been mostly concerned with expertise originating from hard sciences.

Risk Uncertainty and Government by Pat O'Malley (Paperback, 2004)

Another line of contestation originates from social sciences. Sociologists such as Latour Latour and Wolgar, have underlined social and institutional embeddedness of science, implying biases and reductionism in scientific presentations. It is the latter part of criticism that had the greatest implications for the ways in which risks were managed. One type of research resulting from this analysis was the field of risk communication in order to overcome some of the challenges mentioned above Fischhoff, Another type of research was the development of templates for risk governance Renn, that take into account input from social sciences.

It studies media and public perceptions of risks and benefits of aquafarming in several European countries. The purpose of this research is to anticipate food safety concerns and devise an appropriate risk communication and governance strategy to avert these contestations, reflecting insights from risk perception and amplification studies.



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Nonetheless, it is this kind of social science research that requires the expansion of reflexivity to include the social sciences. Moreover, the way in which social sciences are being integrated into emerging templates for risk governance is marginal: Rather than using critical social sciences to question the scientific input and the political normative implications systematically, the use of social sciences is often instrumental and acceptance-ensuring.

However, it is merely a mechanism, which can be used for good and bad purposes. It is for this reason that reflexivity matters — and needs to be thought through. As we have seen above, the Brussels workshop turned out to be a great venue for discussing in details several contested issues surrounding risk and uncertainty. As a UK-Belgian joint project, it served as an important forum for having a dialogue between the sometimes co-existing but not interacting English-speaking and French-speaking scholarly communities.

One set of questions they asked concerns policy practice and solutions that can be facilitated through critical, reflexive social sciences. How can a democratic polity including transnational bodies such as EU and UN better design its responses to uncertainty? This is a question on the global dimension, as many of the policy issues are multifaceted and trans-boundary, requiring a global policy response and coordination. Is the rise of individualism and lack of trust in elites and science a global phenomenon and, if so, how do different institutional arrangements, in different sectors, nations, on different governance levels, deal with this change?

How can we design-in reflexivity and respect for variations as we face similar societal transformations and policy challenges?

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Critical social science has the potential to observe, analyse and propose new designs, especially if it continues to disclose the underlying assumptions. Studying emergent forms of uncertainty governance can also advance social theory, by questioning old concepts associated with democratic governance and identifying gaps in research and practice. Most importantly, reviewing Beck after 20 years demonstrates that we are still more or less where he left us, with some selected areas of progress e.

However, we have yet to understand how we can collectively organise societies in the long term in a way that material and institutional challenges associated with uncertainty can be resolved in a way that is sustainable and ensures citizenship. While a world risk society may not be here today, yet, the issues arising from risk and uncertainty provide us with abundance of important questions for global policy and governance research. Questions to be revisited include the following. What would be the cross-boundary, boundary-respecting evaluation criteria for effective framework for governing uncertainty e.

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How can social science at the interface between research and practice play a constructive role without being instrumentalised? These and other questions have become increasingly relevant everywhere and on all governance levels, posing further challenges both empirically and theoretically to academics and practitioners. We would like to thank Dr.

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Eva-Maria Nag and her Global Policy editorial team for their support, and all the participants for their contributions to the workshop. The Social Sciences and Democracy, ed. Participatory Politics for a New Age. University of California Press. Towards a New Ecology. The Politics of Risk Society. Multilevel Governance, Re-nationalization or Centralization? The Remarkable Story of Risk.

John Wiley and Sons. Recently he was appointed to a Canada Research Chair with a brief to continue investigations into the 'risk society'. Publication Data Place of Publication. Show more Show less. No ratings or reviews yet. Be the first to write a review.



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