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Incorporating Social Sciences in Public Risk Assessment and Risk Management Organisations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Cécile Wendling
Cécile Wendling*
Affiliation:
Center for the Sociology of Organizations (CNRS-SciencesPo, Paris)
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Abstract

The objective of the article is to analyse the use of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) in public risk assessment and risk management organisations in France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, Canada and the United States based on more than a hundred interviews conducted with social sciences experts employed by or working for these organisations. If the added value brought by the integration of social scientists is recognised, the use of social sciences differs from one organisation to another. The article compares the different positions given to social scientists inside and outside the organisation, the various methods used and the different contents produced. The survey highlights a set of initiatives that are scattered, differentiated and ultimately have little in common – except that they often play a marginal role in the main activities of the agencies concerned.

Type
Symposium on the use of Social Sciences in Risk Assessment and Risk Management Organisations in Europe and North America
Information
European Journal of Risk Regulation , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , March 2014 , pp. 7 - 13
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014

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References

1 Interviews were conducted with: UK Food Standards Agency (FSA), UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE), UK Environment Agency (EA), Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu (RIVM) (National Institute for Public Health and the Environment), Planbureauvoor de Leefomgeving (PBL)(Environmental Assessment Agency), Gezondheidsraad (Health Council), Bundesamtfür Risikobewertung (BfR) (Federal Institute for Risk Assessment), Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz (BfS) (Federal Office for Radiation Protection), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Department of Energy (DoE), National Research Council (NRC), Health Canada, Environment Canada, Institut National de Santé Publique du Québec (INSPQ) (National Public Health Institute of Quebec), France’s French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES).

2 Hilgartner, Stephan,“The social construction of risk objects: or how to pry open networks of risk”, In Short, James, F. & Clarke, Lee (ed.),Organizations, uncertainties and risk(Boulder: Westview Press, 1992), pp. 39–53.Google Scholar

3 Eduljee, G.H., “Trends in risk assessment and risk management” 249, The science of the total environment (2000), pp. 13–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

4 Wendling, Cécile, “What role for social scientists in risk expertise?”, 15(5) Journal of risk research (2012), pp. 477–493.CrossRefGoogle Scholar