Hybrid Risk Governance: Integrating Knowledge-Based and Value-Based Decision Making

Major industrial accidents like the Fukushima nuclear disaster show us that such events are often neither unprecedented nor unexpected. Disaster incubation occurs within organisational structures; risks are amplified when the public is not involved and informed; and the impacts often spread across industries, national boundaries and value systems. Risk management, therefore, demands more than technical risk assessment. It requires a participatory process to ensure 1) fair and equitable distribution of risks and benefits, and 2) incorporate the knowledge, values and interests of all stakeholders in decision-making. But what does this mean in practice? The speaker presents a Hybrid Risk Governance Framework as a format for multi-stakeholder engagement. This model offers a comprehensive set of procedures that corporations, policy makers, risk managers, etc. can use to navigate the participatory process at various stages of a project. Examples will be drawn from a case study of nuclear power in India after the Fukushima disaster.