Risk as social process: the end of 'the age of appealing to the facts'?
This paper utilises the notion of the risk society to argue that the ways in which technical practices, knowledge and rationality have become structured into governance are counter-productive and now instrumental to the proliferation of risk and destabilisation of governance. This problem is epitomised by how decisions have evolved to become a matter determined by 'facts' rather than by a determination of the community impact of outcomes and further compounded by the institutionally embedded blindness to wider social concerns that this entails. It is argued that what are required are processes integrating 'factual' technical and 'value-laden' societal concerns and avenues for this and their ramifications are elaborated and explored. Central to such developments will be a democratisation of technical practices and the institutions in which they are embedded. The broader political implications of these developments are examined and found to involve a radical extension of democracy involving an extensive reshaping of the topography of governance.
Healy
S
S
School of Science and Technology Studies, University of New South Wales, NSW 2052, Sydney, Australia. s.healy@unsw.edu.au
D003657:Decision Making; D006076:Government; D006801:Humans; D012308:Risk Management; D012931:Social Environment; D012942:Social Sciences