ERG 251, Spring 1999

PESTR

Political Economy, Social Theory and Risk

Prof. Rochlin

Revised Feb. 17, 1999

Required Text:

Krimsky, Sheldon, and Dominic Golding, eds. Social Theories of Risk. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1992. (Paperback version available from Prof. Rochlin) Referred to below as K&G.

Recommended:

Douglas, Mary T., and Aaron B. Wildavsky. Risk and Culture: an Essay on the Selection of Technical and Environmental Dangers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1983.

There will also be a reader, once we settle down. Until then, readings for the first few weeks will be distributed in class.

Week 1: Introduction and Organization

Luhmann, Niklas. Risk: A Sociological Theory. Trans. Rhodes Barrett. New York: de Gruyter, 1993. Introduction (vii-xiii) and Chapter 1 ("The Concept of Risk"): pp. 1-32

Douglas and Wildavsky, Risk and Culture, pp. 1-28.

Rayner, Steve and Robin Cantor. "How Fair is Safe Enough? The Cultural Approach to Social Technology Choice." Risk Analysis 7, no. 1 (1987): 3-9.

Week 2: Modernity, Risk, Fate and the Future

Last week's readings continued, plus...

Luhmann, Risk, Chapter 2 ("The Future as Risk"): pp. 33-50.

Giddens, Anthony. Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press, 1991. Pp. 14-34; 109-143.

Week 3: Framing the Neo-Classical (Rationalist) Approach

Krimsky, Sheldon. "The Role of Theory in Risk Studies." K&G: 3-20.

Renn, Ortwin. "Concepts of Risk: A Classification." K&G 53-82.

Golding, Dominic. "A Social and Programmatic History of Risk Research." K&G: 23-52.

Freudenberg, William R. "Perceived Risk, Real Risk: Social Science and the Art of Probabilistic Risk Assessment." Science, 242 (October 7 1988), 44-49.

Week 4: The Neo-Classical Perspective: Rationalism in/or/and Social Science

Lowrance, William W. Of Acceptable Risk: Science and the Determination of Safety. Los Altos: Wm. Kaufmann, 1976. Ch. 2 ("Measuring Risk"); 12-74.

Fischoff, Baruch, Paul Slovic, and Sarah Lichtenstein. "Weighing the Risks." in Robert W. Kates, Christoph Hohenemser, and Jeanne X. Kasperson, eds., Perilous Progress: Managing the Hazards of Technology. Boulder: Westview, 1985. Pp. 265-284.

Carlisle, Rodney P. "Probabilistic Risk Assessment in Nuclear Reactors: Engineering Success, Public Relations Failure." Technology and Culture, 38, No. 4 (1997), 920-941.

Jasanoff, Sheila. "Bridging the Two Cultures of Risk Analysis." Risk Analysis, 13, No. 2 (1993), 123-129.

Weeks 5: Cultural Theories of Risk: Social Theory I

Rayner, Steve. "Cultural Theory and Risk Analysis," K&G Ch. 4: 83-114.

Dake, Karl. "Myths of Nature: Culture and the Social Construction of Risk." Journal of Social Issues, 48, 4 (Winter 1993), 21-37.

Wildavsky, Aaaron and Karl Dake. "Theories of Risk Perception: Who Fears What and Why?" Deadalus, 119, 4 (Fall 1990), 41-60.

Week 6: Social and Cultural Theories of Risk II: Acceptable Risk and Dread Risk

Wynne, Brian. "Risk and Social Learning: Reification to Engagement," K&G Ch. 12: 275-300

Laitin - Wildavsky exchange from American Political Science Review

Burns, Tom R. and Thomas Dietz, "Technology, Sociotechnical Systems, Technological Development: An Evolutionary Perspective." In New Technology at the Outset. Ed. Meinolf Dierkes and Ute Hoffman. Boulder: Westview, 1992. 206-238.

Hinman, George W., Eugene A. Rosa, Randall R. Kleinhesselink, and Thomas C. Lowinger. "Perceptions of Nuclear and Other Risks in Japan and the United States." Risk Analysis 13, no. 4 (August, 1993): 449-455.

Week 7: Risk Amplification (a bridge between social theory and political economy approaches)

Otway, Harry and Brian Wynne. "Risk Communication: Problem and Paradox." Risk Analysis 9, no. 2 (June, 1989): 141-146.

Kasperson, Roger E. "The Social Amplification of Risk: Progress in Developing an Integrative Framework." K&G Ch. 6: pp. 153-178.

Renn, Ortwin. "The Social Arena Concept of Risk Debates." In Social Theories of Risk, edited by Sheldon Krimsky and Dominic Golding, 179-196 Westport, CT: Praeger, 1992.

Week 8: Social Theory III: Why Safety is not Not Risk

Beck, Ulrich, Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 1992. Ch 7: pp. 155-182.
Rochlin, Gene I. "The Social Construction of Safety." In Nuclear Safety: A Human Factors Perspective. Ed. Jyuji Misumi, Bernhard Wilpert and Rainer Miller. London and Philadelphia: Taylor & Francis, 1999. pp. 5-24.
Reason, James. "A Systems Approach to Organizational Error." Ergonomics 39, no. 8 (August, 1995): 1708-1721.
Lubchenco, Jane. "Entering the Century of the Environment: A New Social Contract for Science." Science, 279 (23 January 1998): 491-497.

Week 9: Is There an Emergent "World Risk Society??"

Beck, U. "World Risk Society As Cosmopolitan Society - Ecological Questions in a Framework of Manufactured Uncertainties." Theory Culture & Society 13, no. 4 (1996): 1-32.
Freudenberg, William R. "Heuristics, Biases, and the Not-So-General Publics: Expertise and Error in the Assessment of Risks." K&G Ch. 10: pp. 229-250.
Visit from Ronnnie Lipschutz on Thursday March 18 ... his paper was handed out..

BREAK WEEK

Week 10: The Social Construction/Amplification of Risk: Political Economy I

Readings on Y2K, Nuclear War, Nuclear Power, etc.

Rosa, Eugene A. and Riley E. Dunlap. "Nuclear Power - 3 Decades of Public Opinion. Public Opinion Quarterly, 58, 2 (Summer 1994), 295-324.

Week 11: The Social Deconstruction of Risk: PolEcon II

Genetic Engineering, BioTechnology, Tobacco...

Physics and Society vol. 27, No. 2, essays on Low Level Radiation (several authors)

Week 12: Risk Normalization

Slovic, Paul. "Perception of Risk: Reflections on the Psychometric Paradigm." K&G Ch. 5: pp. 117-152.

Diane Vaughn on the Challenger. (plus additional commentaries)

Barke, Richard P., and Hank C. Jenkins-Smith. "Politics and Scientific Expertise: Scientists, Risk Perception, and Nuclear Waste Policy." Risk Analysis, 13, No. 4 (1993), 425-439.

Readings on voluntary and involuntary risks.

Week 13: The "special problem" of "high technology" systems. Normal Accidents?

Rodgers, Robert. "Antidotes to the Idiot's Paradox." In Technology-Mediated Communication, edited by Urs E. Gattiker, 227-275 New York: de Gruyter, 1992.

Readings from Perrow, Sagan, Rochlin and La Porte (including special JCCM issue).

Barry Turner, "The Organizational and Interorganizational Development of Disasters," Administrative Science Quarterly 21 , 1976): 378-397.

Week 14: Policy Perspectives and Overviews

Clarke, Lee, and J. F. Short. "Social Organization and Risk -- Some Current Controversies." Annual Review of Sociology, 19 (1993), 375-399.

Clarke, Lee. "Politics and Bias in Risk Assessment." The Social Science Journal, 25, 2 (1988): 155-165.