| 1. |
- Boholm, Max, 1982, et al.
(författare)
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Dis-Ag-reement: the construction and negotiation of risk in the Swedish controversy over antibacterial silver
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of Risk Research. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1366-9877 .- 1466-4461. ; 18:1, s. 93-110
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- What constitutes a potentially hazardous object is often debated. This article analyses the polemic construction and negotiation of risk in the Swedish controversy over the use of antibacterial silver in health care and consumer products. This debate engages the media, government agencies, parliament and government, non-governmental organizations and companies. Texts and websites from these actors were studied using content analysis. Antibacterial silver is construed by some actors as a risk object with harmful effects on a series of objects at risk: the environment, public health, organisms and sewage treatment. In contrast, other actors deny that antibacterial silver is a risk object, instead construing it as mitigating risk. In such a schema, antibacterial silver is conceived of as managing the risk objects of bacteria and micro-organisms, in turn managing the risk objects of infection, bad smell and washing, and in turn helping the environment and public health (objects at risk). The structure of the debate suggests two basic modes of risk communication. First, antibacterial silver is construed as a risk object, endangering a variety of objects at risk, such as organisms, public health, the environment and sewage treatment. Second, this association between antibacterial silver and objects at risk is obstructed, by denying that antibacterial silver is a risk object or by associating silver with the benefit of mitigating risk.
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| 2. |
- Bendz, Anna, 1967, et al.
(författare)
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Drinking water risk management: local government collaboration in West Sweden
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of Risk Research. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1366-9877 .- 1466-4461. ; 22:6, s. 674-691
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Drinking water provisioning can be approached as a paradigmatic case of transboundary risk management that requires government collaboration. In Sweden, as in most other countries, the provision of safe drinking water and the control of its quality is a responsibility of local governments. This explorative case study investigates how local level decision-makers (politicians and public administrators) identify and understand risks to drinking water services; how they construe governmental responsibility and collaboration between local governments. The empirical results show that decision-makers identify a number of systemically interrelated technical, natural and social risks; that responsibility is understood to be complex and fragmented and that they refrain from collaboration despite clear advantages in theory. Even if the payoff is high from a broad societal perspective for inter-municipal collaborative risk management of drinking water services, collaboration on the local level is low. Institutional uncertainties relating to the allocation of responsibility, transaction costs and political costs for individual municipalities may explain the reluctance to collaborate in this case.
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| 3. |
- Boholm, Åsa, 1953
(författare)
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Anthropology and Risk
- 2015
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Bok (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Drawing on theory from anthropology, sociology, organisation studies and philosophy, this book addresses how the perception, communication and management of risk is shaped by culturally informed and socially embedded knowledge and experience. It provides an account of how interpretations of risk in society are conditioned by knowledge claims and cultural assumptions and by the orientation of actors based on roles, norms, expectations, identities, trust and practical rationality within a lived social world. By focusing on agency, social complexity and the production and interpretation of meaning, the book offers a comprehensive and holistic theoretical perspective on risk, based on empirical case studies and ethnographic enquiry. As a selection of Åsa Boholm’s publications throughout her career, along with a newly written introduction overviewing the field, this book provides a unified perspective on risk as a construct shaped by social and cultural contexts.This collection should be of interest to students and scholars of risk communication, risk management, environmental planning, environmental management and environmental and applied anthropology.
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| 4. |
- Boholm, Åsa, 1953
(författare)
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CHRISTIAN CONSTRUCTION OF THE OTHER: THE ROLE OF JEWS IN THE EARLY MODERN CARNIVAL OF ROME
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of Mediterranean Studies. - 1016-3476. ; 24:1, s. 37-52
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In Rome, for many centuries, it was mandatory for the city's Jews to take part in gross and degrading carnival spectacles. Making use of various historical records of such celebrations, this article explores the cultural construction of Jewish character within carnival against the background of religious ideas about Christian identity and alterity. In contrast to Christians, whose constitutions were believed to include a spiritual essence, or 'soul', Jews were construed to lack spirituality entirely. Learned churchmen have argued that Jews were unable to perceive the 'truth' of the doctrines of the Christian religion. Allowing themselves to be controlled by their bodies, unlike good Christians, they were viewed as being akin to beasts in human guise. But the Jew, according to this culturally determined view, not only furnished a caricature of what, according to Christian values, were vices, but also represented a real threat to the Christian community.
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| 5. |
- Boholm, Åsa, 1953
(författare)
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Cultural theory
- 2018
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Ingår i: Companion to Environmental Studies. - : Routledge. - 9781138192195
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Companion to Environmental Studies presents a comprehensive and interdisciplinary overview of the key issues, debates, concepts, approaches and questions that together define environmental studies today. The intellectually wide-ranging volume covers approaches in environmental science all the way through to humanistic and post-natural perspectives on the biophysical world.
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| 6. |
- Boholm, Åsa, 1953, et al.
(författare)
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Experts’ understandings of drinking water risk management in a climate change scenario
- 2017
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Ingår i: Climate Risk Management. - : Elsevier BV. - 2212-0963. ; 16, s. 133-144
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The challenges for society presented by climate change are complex and demanding. This paper focuses on one particular resource of utmost necessity and vulnerability to climate change: namely, the provisioning of safe drinking water. From a critical perspective on the role of expertise in risk debates, this paper looks at how Swedish experts understand risk to drinking water in a climate change scenario and how they reason about challenges to risk management and adaptation strategies. The empirical material derives from ten in-depth semi-structured interviews with experts, employed both at government agencies and at universities, and with disciplinary backgrounds in a variety of fields (water engineering, planning, geology and environmental chemistry). The experts understand risk factors affecting both drinking water quality and availability as complex and systemically interrelated. A lack of political saliency of drinking water as a public service is identified as an obstacle to the development of robust adaptation strategies. Another area of concern relates to the geographical, organizational and institutional boundaries (regulatory, political and epistemological) between the plethora of public actors with partly overlapping and sometimes unclear responsibilities for the provisioning of safe drinking water. The study concludes that climate change adaptation regarding drinking water provisioning will require a new integration of the knowledge of systemic risk relations, in combination with more efficient agency collaboration based on a clear demarcation of responsibility between actors.
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| 7. |
- Boholm, Åsa, 1953
(författare)
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Lessons of success and failure: Practicing risk communication at government agencies
- 2019
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Ingår i: Safety Science. - : Elsevier BV. - 0925-7535. ; 118, s. 158-167
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- - The study looks at government agency officials’ experiences of what characterizes successful and failed risk communication. It is theoretically positioned within a practice based approach to risk communication and management as an organizational activity, or “risk work”. Risk work in organizations build on sense making, alignment to commonly agreed prudent practices, and learning from experience. The empirical method consists of interviews with practitioners working with risk communication at six government agencies in Sweden, in the policy areas of food, chemicals, environmental protection, housing and building, traffic, and contingency planning and management. The study identifies several factors that according to the practitioners contribute to success and failure of risk communication work practice: strategic planning and decision making; inter-organizational collaboration and assigning of responsibility, predominantly with other agencies but also with external stakeholders; scientific knowledge and understanding of risk issues; interactions with the media; alignment of risk management; and formulating and disseminating the message. An additional finding is the tendency of the practitioners to make attributions in terms of causal explanations, internal or external to the organization, of success and failure in performing risk communication. © 2019 The Author
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| 8. |
- Boholm, Åsa, 1953
(författare)
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Risk Communication as Government Agency Organizational Practice
- 2019
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Ingår i: Risk Analysis. - : Wiley. - 0272-4332 .- 1539-6924. ; 39:8, s. 1695-1707
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The dynamics of organizational risk communication is an understudied topic in risk research. This article investigates how public officials at six government agencies in Sweden understand and relate to risk communication and its uses in the context of agency organizational work on policy and regulation. Qualitative interviews were used to explore the practitioners’ views on some key topics in the academic literature on risk communication. A main finding is that there is little consensus on what the goals of risk communication are; if, and how, uncertainty should be communicated; and what role is to be played by transparency in risk communication. However, the practitioners agree that dissemination (top down) to the public of robust scientific and expert knowledge is a crucial element. Dialogue and participation is used mainly with other agencies and elite stakeholders with whom agencies collaborate to implement policy goals. Dialogue with the public on issues of risk is very limited. Some implications of the findings for the practice of risk communication by government agencies are suggested.
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| 9. |
- Boholm, Åsa, 1953, et al.
(författare)
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The role of valuation practices for risk identification
- 2015
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This report uses a relational theory of risk within which risk is understood as a relationship between a risk object and an object at risk where the risk object threatens the value embedded in the object at risk. A case study of risk management in railway planning examined through a relational understanding of risk demonstrates how riskwork is conditioned by what is valued, how, and by whom. The report argues that riskwork originates in the versatile valuation practices that take place in organizations. Furthermore, it suggests that bringing such valuation practices under critical scrutiny opens up the possibility for a reflexive approach to risk management. Such a reflexive approach would take into account how risk identification is embedded in a particular organizational order.
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| 10. |
- Boholm, Åsa, 1953, et al.
(författare)
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What is the problem? A literature review on challenges facing the communication of nanotechnology to the public
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of nanoparticle research. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1388-0764 .- 1572-896X. ; 21:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ethical and societal issues concerning justice, safety, risks, and benefits are well-established topics in the discourses of nanotechnology innovation and development. That nanotechnology innovation should be socially and ethically responsible is generally accepted by scientists, policymakers, regulators, and industry, and the idea of public involvement and communication is part and parcel of the conceptualization of responsible technology development. This paper systematically reviews the social science research literature accumulated between 2002 and 2018 on the communication of nanotechnology. A critical and constructivist perspective on policy problems guides the analysis. Two questions are asked of this literature: what problems are identified regarding the communication of nanotechnology to the public? How can these problems be managed and/or resolved? Three different problem themes are identified: the public, societal institutions, and nanotechnology itself. While for some identified problems, there are corresponding solutions; in other instances, there is little alignment between problems and solutions. In conclusion, the paper recommends that in communicating nanotechnology to the public: (i) the objectives of communication should be defined; (ii) previous research should be used responsibly; (iii) communication strategies should be adapted to the context; and (iv) effort should not be spent trying to develop a generic framework for communication.
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| 11. |
- Johansson, Mikael, 1969, et al.
(författare)
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Scientists’ Understandings of Risk of Nanomaterials: Disciplinary Culture Through the Ethnographic Lens
- 2017
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Ingår i: NanoEthics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1871-4757 .- 1871-4765. ; 11:3, s. 229-241
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- © 2017 The Author(s) There is a growing literature on how scientific experts understand risk of technology related to their disciplinary field. Previous research shows that experts have different understandings and perspectives depending on disciplinary culture, organizational affiliation, and how they more broadly look upon their role in society. From a practice-based perspective on risk management as a bottom-up activity embedded in work place routines and everyday interactions, we look, through an ethnographic lens, at the laboratory life of nanoscientists. In the USA and Sweden, two categories of nanoscientists have been studied: upstream scientists who are mainly electrical and physical engineers and downstream scientists who are toxicologists, often with a more multidisciplinary background, including physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering. The results show that although the two groups of scientists share the same norms of appropriate laboratory conduct to promote safety and good science practice, they have very different perspectives on risk with nanomaterials. Upstream scientists downplay risk; they emphasize the innovative potential of the new materials to which they express an affectionate and personalized stance. The downstream scientists, instead, focus on the uncertainties and unpredictability of nanomaterials and they see some materials as potentially highly dangerous. The results highlight the ambiguous and complex role of scientific experts in policy processes about the risk and regulation of nanotechnology.
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| 12. |
- Larsson, Simon, 1982, et al.
(författare)
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Attitudes towards nanomaterials and nanotechnology among Swedish expert stakeholders: Risk, benefit and regulation
- 2017
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this study is to investigate attitudes towards nanomaterials and nanotechnology among Swedish expert stakeholders. The study explores the views of these experts on a number of topics in connection to nanotechnology innovation with a focus on perceived risk, perceived benefits, risk regulation, and risk management. In January 2017, we distributed a web-based questionnaire to 237 individual experts at government agencies, business corporations, and other relevant organisations. The experts had a self-rated interest in, or connection to, nanomaterials and nanotechnology in their work at their organisation. This study contributes to a multidisciplinary research field addressing questions about innovation and foresight, risk perception, and regulation of nanomaterials and nanotechnology in the public domain. This study makes several claims. 1. The topic of nanomaterials and nanotechnology engages a broad range of Swedish stakeholders in many different ways, including, but not limited to, research and research funding, risk assessment, product development, as well as regulation and legislation. 2. Experts generally emphasize the benefits of nanotechnology and nanomaterials, but perceived benefit and perceived risk varies with educational background and organizational affiliation. 3. How experts assess risk and benefit varies depending on area of application (for example medicine, cosmetics, coatings, electronics, agriculture and food). 4. Experts are generally supportive of further regulation of nanomaterials and nanotechnology. They are relatively negative to taxation and self-regulation as regulatory measures and relatively positive to selective prohibition. There is also disagreement over appropriate regulatory measures among respondents. 5. High perceived risk correlates with a more positive attitude to regulation, and high perceived benefit correlates with lower support for regulation. 6. A common and shared belief is that regulation should be based on science, and that public involvement is undesirable.
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| 13. |
- Larsson, Simon, 1982, et al.
(författare)
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Den svenska allmänhetens inställning till nanoteknik
- 2018
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Ingår i: Sprickor i fasaden : SOM-undersökningen 2017. - Göteborg : Göteborgs universitet: SOM-institutet.. - 0284-4788. ; , s. 293-303
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Allmänhetens syn på risker och nytta med ny teknik kan vara avgörande för innovationsklimatet och möjligheterna att introducera nya produkter på marknaden. Detta bokkapitel handlar om den svenska allmänhetens syn på risker och nytta med nanoteknik. Allmänheten har låg kunskap om nanoteknik. Samtidigt är man förhoppningsfull och tänker att området lovar nytta. Men alla är inte lika övertygade och vissa ser istället betydande risker. Allmänhetens uppfattning skiljer sig åt mellan tillämpningsområden, man är positiv till nanoteknik i läkemedel och i målarfärg, men mer skeptisk till användning i mat och kosmetika. Bedömning av nytta och risk med nanoteknik påverkas av bakgrundsfaktorer som kön och utbildningsnivå. Däremot spelar ålder och var i landet man är bosatt mindre roll. Eftersom kunskap om nanoteknik är låg och erfarenheten ytterst begränsad görs bedömningar utifrån kunskap och erfarenhet av ny teknik och innovativa produkter i allmänhet.
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| 14. |
- Larsson, Simon, 1982, et al.
(författare)
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Expert stakeholders’ perception of nanotechnology: risk, benefit, knowledge, and regulation
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of nanoparticle research. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1388-0764 .- 1572-896X. ; 21:57
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study is positioned in a multidisciplinary research field addressing questions of innovation, foresight, risk perception, regulation, and the role of stakeholder experts as regards nanomaterials and nanotechnology. Nanotechnology is an innovative scientific field with many potential societal benefits but also high uncertainty about risks to human health and the environment. This study is based on a survey distributed to a sample of 237 expert stakeholders in Sweden working in the field of nanotechnology innovation and regulation. The sample comprises experts in both industry and government organizations. The paper explores the expert’s assessment of benefits, risks, and their views of nanotechnology regulation. The experts generally agreed on the need for further regulation of nanotechnology, although they differed in their support for different regulatory measures. Support for government regulation was increased by greater perceived risk and by ethical concerns, while perceived benefit decreased support for government regulation. If nanotechnology was important for the respondent’s organization of affiliation, support for government regulation decreased. Experts in government organizations were more in favor of stronger government regulation, perceived higher risks, and were more concerned about the ethical implications of nanotechnology than were the industry experts. While previous research has discussed views of experts, as well as comparing the attitudes of the general public with experts, this study contributes to the field by analyzing and identifying differences between industry experts and experts working in government.
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