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 their judgment about relative payoffs. So it is wrong to regard social and cultural judgments as things that can only distort the perception of risk. Without social and cultural judgments, there are no risks. Those judgements constitute risk, although often in hidden ways.

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