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Social Contexts of Risk Robert Evans Cardiff School of Social Sciences Risk Society Risk Society and social theory Boomerang effect turns ‘goods’ into ‘bads’ (Ulrich Beck) Endemic expert controversy creates anxiety for individuals as traditional authorities no longer trusted (Anthony Giddens) Risk Society and science studies How does official expert knowledge (e.g. science, medicine, engineering) relate to knowledge held in other communities (e.g. lay citizens, patient groups, users)? Rumsfeld on Risk Three types of risk Known knowns Known unknowns Unknown unknowns Risk assessments focus on first two as defined by a single group Post-Normal Science Post Normal Science In such contexts of complexity, there is a new role for natural science. The facts that are taught from textbooks in institutions are still necessary, but are no longer sufficient. For these relate to a standardised version of the natural world, frequently to the artificially pure and stable conditions of a laboratory experiment. The world as we interact with it in working for sustainability, is quite different. Those who have become accredited experts through a course of academic study, have much valuable knowledge in relation to these practical problems. But they may also need to recover from the mindset they might absorb unconsciously from their instruction… When facts are uncertain, values in dispute, stakes high, and decisions urgent the traditional guiding principle of research science, the goal of achievement of truth or at least of factual knowledge, must be substantially modified. In post-normal conditions, such products may be a luxury, indeed an irrelevance. Here, the guiding principle is a more robust one, that of quality. Example 1: 2,4,5-T herbicide Concern about safety of 2,4,5,T banned or restricted in some countries no longer used by some UK local authorities and national organisations farmworkers have asked Advisory Committee on Pesticides to ban 2,4,5-T on seven previous occasions