Technological risks, social conflicts and environmental policies: From the study of social perceptions to public engagement

Abstract

The governance of environmental and technological risks, together with the promotion of sustainable development, has been a key pillar for public policy in recent decades. Such policies usually aim to influence public attitudes and citizen’s behaviour in order to promote risk-preventive behaviours, and to prevent non-sustainable ones. Lay citizens, however, do not always simply follow such policy measures, but instead display a variety of actions, ranging from apathy or indifference to public opposition and rejection, further contributing to environmental degradation or to excessive risk exposure. Thus, there seems to be a clear mismatch between sustainable policy goals and the related daily behaviours of citizens, which is, indeed, a fundamental and critical issue for both risk governance and democratic legitimacy. This paper presents an overview of the social research on risk and its efforts for understanding, and contributing to solve, such challenges. Through a revision of the literature, the origins and evolution of risk perception and risk communication research, from the more technocratic approaches of the 70s up to more participative and recent approaches, highlighting strengths and weakness, are introduced and analysed. Finally, in order to illustrate the more recent and innovative approaches, we introduce the STAVE method as an example of interconnection (through brokerage proceedings) between the environmental policy-making sphere and the everyday sphere of citizens, combining elements of research and engagement to uncover daily experiences related to sustainable practices.