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International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Book | Chapter

181198

Risk assessment as social research

John A. Crane

pp. 279-308

Abstract

The initial stage of design of a risk assessment study is an attempt to specify a set of valuation principles — requirements of good policies — by which risk control policies should be evaluated. A well grounded framework of valuation principles will ensure that the enquiry deals with the questions on which the assessment should hinge. The creation and justification of such a framework is primarily an excercise in ethics and applied philosophy. At the same time, the risk assessor must find a way of mapping the valuation principles onto a corresponding set of "optimization parameters" (in engineering terms). These are the elements of the research design that determine the power of the study to provide the data that will enable one to make a judgment as to whether existing policies and practices are in accord with the valuation principles. To meet this demand, the study must (1) concern itself with degrees of risk that are neither so small as to be trivial nor so large as to render the project socially irresponsible. It must also (2) provide estimates of risk and benefit that are neither so precise that the attempt to achieve them would be wasteful of resources nor so imprecise as to vitiate the usefulness of the enquiry. Finally, (3) it must accept a degree of uncertainty in the findings that is neither so large as to be reckless nor so small as to be timid.

Publication details

Published in:

Durbin Paul T. (1987) Technology and responsibility. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 279-308

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-015-6940-8_14

Full citation:

Crane John A. (1987) „Risk assessment as social research“, In: P. T. Durbin (ed.), Technology and responsibility, Dordrecht, Springer, 279–308.