Adaptive and integrative governance on risk and uncertainty

Abstract

The article will conceptualize procedural mechanisms and structural configurations of risk governance with adaptive and integrative capacity in a general and comprehensive manner in order to better grasp the dynamics, structures, and functionality of risk-handling processes. Adaptive and integrative risk governance is supposed to address challenges raised by three characteristics that result from a lack of knowledge and/or competing knowledge claims about the risk problem: complexity, scientific uncertainty, and socio-political ambiguity. Adaptive and integrative capacity are broadly seen as the ability of politics and society to collectively design and implement a systematic approach to organizational and policy learning in institutional settings that are conducive to resolve cognitive, evaluative and normative problems, and conflicts of risks. For this purpose, we propose a risk governance model that augments the classical model of risk analysis (risk assessment, management, communication) by including steps of pre-estimation, interdisciplinary risk estimation, risk characterization and evaluation, risk management as well as monitoring and control. This new risk governance model also incorporates expert, stakeholder and public involvement as a core feature in the stage of communication and deliberation. A governance decision tree finally allows a systematic step-by-step procedure for the more inclusive risk-handling process.