�Risk Governance is a tour de force. Every risk manager, every risk analyst, every risk researcher must read this book - it is the demarcation point for all further advances in risk policy and risk research. Renn provides authoritative guidance on how to manage risks based on a definitive synthesis of the research literature. The skill with which he builds practical recommendations from solid science is unprecedented.�Thomas Dietz, Director, Environmental Science and Policy Program,...

This book examines fair citizen participation as a key element of effective policy support. Over the past two decades, many countries have embraced more reflective and inclusive governance in environmental policymaking.This book demonstrates how democratic and deliberative approaches yield better policy outcomes than technocratic methods that only superficially engage the public. Reflective governance highlights the importance of deliberative democracy, offering fair and open disco...

Risk as we now know it is a wholly new phenomenon, the by-product of our ever more complex and powerful technologies. In business, policy making, and in everyday life, it demands a new way of looking at technological and environmental uncertainty.In this definitive volume, four of the world's leading risk researchers present a fundamental critique of the prevailing approaches to understanding and managing risk - the 'rational actor paradigm'. They show how risk studies must incorpo...

The desire to understand people’s influence on ecosystems has inspired scientific studies and analyses of the stress individuals and communities place on the environment, human well-being, and the tradeoffs between them. As an emerging discipline, Structural Human Ecology is devoted to unlocking the dynamic links between population, environment, social organization, and technology. The new field offers cutting-edge research in risk analysis that can be used to evaluate environmental polici...

Risk is a popular topic in many sciences - in natural, medical, statistical, engineering, social, economic and legal disciplines. Yet, no single discipline can grasp the full meaning of risk. Investigating risk requires a multidisciplinary approach. The authors, coming from two very different disciplinary traditions, meet this challenge by building bridges between the engineering, the statistical and the social science perspectives. The book provides a comprehensive, accessible and concise...

Based on an EU workshop at the end of 2005, the book discusses risk and our food supply. The introductory chapter will discuss all aspects of risk and how it applies to food, from risk classification to risk management. Following a discussion of risk, the authors will present three different case studies that will emphasize the following issues:• What do we want as individuals, as a society• What is the political context of the risk discussion• When do we act and what...

Ortwin Renn Thomas Wehler Peter Wiedemann In late July of 1992 the small and remote mountain resort of Morschach in the Swiss Alps became a lively place of discussion, debate, and discourse. Over a three-day period twenty-two analysts and practitioners of public participation from the United States and Europe came together to address one of the most pressing issues in contemporary environmental politics: How can environmental policies be designed in a way that achieves both effective prote...

This book explores how narratives have been and can be used to facilitate radical transformations towards a more sustainable future.Scholars from various disciplines have been increasingly utilizing social and cultural narratives to understand personal, social, and cultural transformations. These narratives offer guiding principles for achieving personal, social, and cultural transformations. Drawing on various fields such as psychoanalysis, psychology, sociology, technology, cultu...

Published in 1997. After the collapse of the communist system, the political systems in Eastern Europe were unable to cope with increasing tensions between ethnic majorities and minorities. These tensions led to violent ethnic conflicts and civil wars, in particular in former Yugoslavia. In this phase of transition and nation-(re)building, ethnic groups strove for more political autonomy and even territorial secession. The newly independent states lacked democratic structures and tradition...

working mechanisms and to develop the overall governance framework in which we operate. Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle Executive Director European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) Parma, March 2008 Acknowledgements This book and the General Framework for the Precautionary and Inclusive Governance of Food Safety that it presents and critically discusses have grown out of research undertaken within one of the subprojects (work package 5) of the research project SAFE FOODS, ‘Promoting Food Safety thr...

Cross-Cultural Risk Perception demonstrates the richness and wealth of theoretical insights and practical information that risk perception studies can offer to policy makers, risk experts, and interested parties. The book begins with an extended introduction summarizing the state of the art in risk perception research and core issues of cross-cultural comparisons. The main body of the book consists of four cross-cultural studies on public attitudes towards risk in different countr...

Education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is crucial for taking advantage of the prospects of new scientific discoveries initiating or promoting technological changes, and managing opportunities and risks associated with innovations. This book explores the emerging perspectives and methodologies of STEM education and its relationship to the cultural understanding of science and technology in an international context.The authors provide a unique perspectiv...