The practice of risk governance: lessons from the field

• In contradistinction to generic and formal risk governance models such as the IRGC framework, this paper advocates the relevance of a contextual and practice-based approach to organizational risk governance. Three cases illustrate the socially situated dynamics of risk governance practice: public transportation management, river management, and railway planning. Risk governance is shown to derive from how actors, in their daily activities, mediate multi-level and regulatory institutional constraints, and solve actual problems through routines, trust, mutual understanding and not least, shared commitment to the societal role of infrastructure. Our findings underscore that risk governance takes place in contexts that are historically, spatially and institutionally situated. We therefore suggest that one needs to pay attention to the characteristics of this contextuality to understand the social dynamics of governance.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Övrig annan samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi -- Socialantropologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology -- Social Anthropology (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap -- Oceanografi, hydrologi och vattenresurser (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences -- Oceanography, Hydrology and Water Resources (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Tvärvetenskapliga studier inom samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary (hsv//eng)

Keyword

risk governance

IRGC framework

practice

decision-making

regulation

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)