TRUTH OR DARE: EXPERTISE AND RISK GOVERNANCE

摘要

There is increasing evidence that the public is as concerned with the risks associated with technology as it is enthused by the opportunities that technology presents. Experts are increasingly referred to not so much for solutions to social problems per se, but paradoxically to problems attendant on technological solutions themselves. In these circumstances, there is an urgent need for the role of the expert to be clarified. While the public and political actors have essentially looked to experts for certainty in an uncertain world, this is precisely what scientific rationality cannot provide. The inherent modesty of science (exemplified, for example, by the need for falsifiability) must always be compromised at the point when a decision is made, when "knowledge" becomes "action". There is accordingly a need to be clear about the status of scientific information or knowledge on the one hand, and the effect of the decision to act on the other ― and hence the appropriate locus of responsibility. Analysing the process from expert advice through to political or economic decision can help to clarify the point at which misunderstanding arises, at which the inherently provisional truth of science is transformed into the effectively absolute truth implied by a decision to apply knowledge as technology. Recognising that it is at this point that risks are run (as well as the opportunity for rewards created) may lead to greater clarity as to the respective roles. It may in turn offer some lessons as regards the design of risk governance arrangements and the place of experts in them.