Risk, Uncertainty and Rational Action

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 incorporate the competing interests, values, and rationalities of those involved and find a balance of trust and acceptable risk. Their work points to a comprehensive and significant new theory of risk and uncertainty and of the decision making process they require. The implications for social, political, and environmental theory and practice are enormous. Winner of the 2000-2002 Outstanding Publication Award of the Section on Environment and Technology of the American Sociological Association

Foreword * Preface * General Introduction * The Rational Actor World * RAP: The Monarch and his Shaky Kingdom * Risky Decisions of a Single Agent * Risky Decisions of Interacting Agents * Looking for Other World * Challenged and Alternatives to RAP in the Study if Risk * Modernity and Beyond * From Monological to Dialogical Rationality * References * Index

Carlo C Jaeger is Professor of Modelling Social Systems and leads the Department of Social Systems at PIK, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Ortwin Renn is Chair of Environmental Sociology at the University of Stuttgart. Eugene A Rosa is Distinguished Professor of Environmental and Natural Resource Policy, Washington State University. Thomas Webler is a researcher in the Department of Environmental Studies, Antioch New England Graduate School.