Themes and tasks of risk communication

Jungermann, H.; Kasperson, R. E.; Wiedemann, Peter M.

Book/Report

FZJ-2017-01734

Themes and tasks of risk communication

Jungermann, H. (Editor) ; Kasperson, R. E. (Editor) ; Wiedemann, P. M. (Editor)FZJ*

1988
Kernforschungsanlage Jülich GmbH Zentralbibliothek, Verlag Jülich
ISBN: 3-89336-014-X

Jülich : Kernforschungsanlage Jülich GmbH Zentralbibliothek, Verlag, Berichte der Kernforschungsanlage Jülich 70, 191 p. (1988)

Please use a persistent id in citations: http://hdl.handle.net/2128/13839

Report No.: Juel-Conf-0070

Abstract: This volume presents a set of papers from an international workshop an "Risk Communication". Participants were about 20 researchers from the U .S. and about 20 researchersfrom Europe, in particular from the FRG. Although they represented a widerange of disciplines and nationalities, their common interest were the problems ofcommunicating about risks, particularly for health and environment, resulting from thedevelopment and application of modern technological systems and procedures.Why has risk communication research become so important? Modern societies havegreat difficulties in coping socially and politically with new technologies and their consequences. The debates between experts and laypeople, between scientists and politicians,between advocates and critics, between political parties, and even within scientificcommunities and political parties are "hot": One argues, and sometimes fights, aboutthe probability of accidents in power plants, about the consequences of increased (orreduced) car traffic, aboüt the possibility of the creation of genetically dangerous materialthrough the combination of genetically harmless material, and about the illdefinedconsequences of potential global climatic change.Whereas most people today have come to realize that in a democratic political systemthere is simply no alternative to open, honest, and extensive information and communication,most people also have come to realize that this is an extremely difficult, andsometimes dangerous, task. As has been said before, informing about risk has itself ahigh risk of failure. A well-known example is the presentation of information aboutextreme low probabilities of an accident (e. g., in a nuclear plant) or about effects whichcannot be perceived with our senses (e. g., radiation).The workshop presented, for the first time in the FRG, the theoretical concepts, empiricalfmdings, practical experiences, and some conclusions of a scientific communitywhich explicitly focusses an "risk communication". The scientists met at the ResearchCenter in Jülich for a particular reason: Within the Program Group Technology andSociety there is one research group founded a few years ago under the direction ofOrtwin Renn to examine the social compatability of energy supply systems. Recently,this group shifted its attention to the study of risk communication problems in a nationaland international context. The workshop provided an important opportunity tolearn and discuss about the present state-of-the-art of risk communication research.

Note: Proceedings of the International Workshop an Risk Communicationheld at the KFA Jülich, October 17-21, 1988

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