Governing Risk

Contemporary law and government are increasingly characterized by a focus on risk. Fields such as health, psychiatry, criminal justice, vehicle safety, urban design and environmental governance all provide examples of settings in which problems are dealt with as risks. While risk has become more prominent, there have also been changes in the nature of risk techniques deployed. Whereas welfare states provided many services through socialized risk - such as social insurances covering health, employment and old age - increasing emphasis is now placed on individual risk management arrangements such as private insurance. In this environment, the positive side of risk has also been made more salient. Enterprise, innovation and risk-taking have become qualities valued, or even required, of current governance. In this volume, the most influential examinations and interpretations of this major trend have been brought together, in order to make clear the range and diversity, the spread and penetration of risk in contemporary societies.

The establishment of the International Risk Governance Council (IRGC) was the direct result of widespread concern that the complexity and interdependence of health, environmental, and technological risks facing the world was making the development and implementation of adequate risk governance strategies ever more difficult. This volume details the IRGC developed and proposed framework for risk governance and covers how it was peer reviewed as well as tested

· Brings together diverse country environments in a common analytical framework.

Risk is a popular topic in many sciences - in natural, medical, statistical, engineering, social, economic and legal disciplines. Yet, no single discipline can grasp the full meaning of risk. Investigating risk requires a multidisciplinary approach. The authors, coming from two very different disciplinary traditions, meet this challenge by building bridges between the engineering, the statistical and the social science perspectives. The book provides a comprehensive, accessible and concise guide to risk assessment, management and governance. A basic pillar for the book is the risk governance framework proposed by the International Risk Governance Council (IRGC). This framework offers a comprehensive means of integrating risk identification, assessment, management and communication. The authors develop and explain new insights and add substance to the various elements of the framework. The theoretical analysis is illustrated by several examples from different areas of applications.

Biases, blind spots and bonuses (or incentives more broadly) have led to numerous risk management disasters. Risk governance is a potential solution to these problems yet is not always as effective as we would like it to be. One reason for that is the current dearth of risk governance expertise. This book seeks to address this issue, providing: Understanding of the fundamental forces that cause disasters: the biases, blind spots and bonuses. This understanding is drawn from the disciplines of economics/finance and psychology; Explanation of the structures of risk governance and common challenges experienced in their use e.g. board risk committee, risk/compliance function, assurance function, risk appetite statement, risk disclosures; Thorough investigation of risk culture and its importance in risk governance, including the assessment of risk culture; Understanding of the mechanisms of executive compensation and how they link to risk management – one of the most difficult challenges confronting both risk and remuneration committees; Explanation of the risk management process (based on international standards ISO31000), including practical guidance on risk communication, analysis and treatment; Guidance on the management of strategic risk, emphasising the importance of scenario analysis; Application of these principles to cyber risk, climate risk – two pervasive risks affecting almost every organisation; Numerous case studies and examples drawn from various industries around the world; and Discussion of what has been learned about risk governance from the COVID-19 experience. The book is an essential guide for postgraduate students; participants in professional education programs in governance and risk management; directors; senior executives; risk, compliance and assurance professionals as well as conduct and prudential regulators worldwide.

Risk Governance is a tour de force. Every risk manager, every risk analyst, every risk researcher must read this book - it is the demarcation point for all further advances in risk policy and risk research. Renn provides authoritative guidance on how to manage risks based on a definitive synthesis of the research literature. The skill with which he builds practical recommendations from solid science is unprecedented. Thomas Dietz, Director, Environmental Science and Policy Program, Michigan State University, USA A masterpiece of new knowledge and wisdom with illustrative examples of tested applications to realworld cases. The book is recommendable also to interested students in different disciplines as a timely textbook on 'risk beyond risk'. Norio Okada, Full Professor and Director at the Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto University, Japan There are classic environmental works such as The Tragedy of the Commons by Hardin, Risk Society by Beck, The Theory of Communicative Action by Habermas, and the seminal volumes by Ostrom on governing the commons. Renns book fits right into this series of important milestones of environmental studies. Jochen Jaeger, Professor at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada Risk Governance provides a valuable survey of the whole field of risk and demonstrates how scientific, economic, political and civil society actors can participate in inclusive risk governance. Jobst Conrad, Senior Scientist, Social Science Research Center Berlin, Germany Renn offers a remarkably fair-minded and systematic approach to bringing together the diverse fields that have something to say about 'risk'. Risk Governance moves us along the path from the noisy, formative stage of thinking about risk to one with a stronger empirical, theoretical, and analytical foundation. Baruch Fischhoff, PhD, Howard Heinz University Professor, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA 'I cannot describe how impressed I am at the breadth and coherence of Renn's career's work! Written with remarkable clarity and minimal technical jargon... [this] should be required reading in risk courses!' John Graham, former director of the Harvard Risk Center and former deputy director of the Office of Budget and Management of the Unites States Administration This book, for the first time, brings together and updates the groundbreaking work of renowned risk theorist and researcher Ortwin Renn, integrating the major disciplinary concepts of risk in the social, engineering and natural sciences. The book opens with the context of risk handling before flowing through the core topics of assessment, evaluation, perception, management and communication, culminating in a look at the transition from risk management to risk governance and a glimpse at a new understanding of risk in (post)modern societies.

This book provides an easy, but comprehensive and rigorous access to the main concepts, terminology, methods and procedures of risk analysis intended for all those involved in the EU policy and regulatory decision making on risks. It establishes a common ground of knowledge which enables a more informed dialogue on risks, a closer collaboration between decision makers and scientists and a better appraisal of the potential and limits of risk science. The book also brings together in an accessible way much multidisciplinary knowledge which had been dispersed over many technical documents and specialist books. The EU is in the front line of health, safety and environmental risk management. GMOs, food safety, hazardous chemicals, climate change, radiation hazards, are just a few of the popular risk issues addressed by the EU through policy and regulatory measures. The risk analysis paradigm, including risk assessment, management and communication has been at the core of the EU decision making for a long time already. EU Institutions strive for a science-based approach to risk management. Nevertheless, the dialogue and collaboration on risk issues between policy makers, stakeholders and scientists are still difficult and the potential and limits of science in support of decision making, as well as the basic concepts of risk analysis are not fully understood outside the narrow specialist circles.

With the effects of the latest financial crisis still unfolding, this is a timely guide to the politics of international financial reform comparing the policies that the international community requested the IMF to follow in the aftermath of the Mexican, Asian, and subprime crisis.