Ulrich Beck
In risk conflicts, the central question of power is a question of definition. It is the question of who, with what legal and intellectual resources, gets to decide what counts as a ‘risk’, what counts as a ‘cause’, and what counts as a ‘cost’. The question of determining who is responsible, and who has to bear the burden of paying for damages, has been transmuted … [ Read more ]
Content: Quotation | Author: Ulrich Beck | Source: European Business Forum (EBF) | Subject: Risk Management
Ulrich Beck
Risk acceptability depends on whether those who carry the losses also receive the benefits. Where this is not the case, the risk will be unacceptable to those affected. If even the benefit is in dispute it is not enough to demonstrate that the ‘residual risk’ is, statistically speaking, highly improbable. A risk cannot be considered in and of itself. It is always framed by the … [ Read more ]
Content: Quotation | Author: Ulrich Beck | Source: European Business Forum (EBF) | Subject: Risk Management
Ulrich Beck
Technical experts have lost their monopoly on rationality in the original sense: they no longer dictate the proportions by which judgment is measured. Statements of risk are based on cultural standards, technically expressed, about what is still and what is no longer acceptable. When scientists say that an event has a low probability of occurring, and hence is a negligible risk, they are necessarily encoding … [ Read more ]
Content: Quotation | Author: Ulrich Beck | Source: European Business Forum (EBF) | Subject: Risk Management