The Role of Technocrats in Risk Society and Its Limits(PDF)
《南京师大学报》(社会科学版)[ISSN:1006-6977/CN:61-1281/TN]
- Issue:
- 2013年05期
- Page:
- 21-27
- Research Field:
- Publishing date:
Info
- Title:
- The Role of Technocrats in Risk Society and Its Limits
- Author(s):
- ZHANG Chenggang
- Keywords:
- technocrats; modernity; risk society; definition of risks
- PACS:
- -
- DOI:
- -
- Abstract:
- Human beings face a great challenge of risk in the modernity movement with their noble goal of pursuing security; they live in a risk society. Risks have their real existence as well as being constructed to some extent. In such a society, technocrats play an important role in defining what is the risk and providing legitimacy for risk decisionmaking. But the roles they played have such limits: their definition of risk may lead to greater risks; the quantitative and empirical methods they used to define the risk have intrinsic defects; risk management is a complex process which includes technical elements and nontechnical elements, so they can do nothing with the nontechnical problems. To increase the human ability to cope with the risk, we should further improve our risk awareness, break the experts monopoly in defining risks and open the risk decisionmaking structures, so that stakeholders can really participate in risk decision making.
Last Update: 2013-09-25