Paris Risk Group 2016 annual workshop

Participation in Risk Assessment – Modes of Risk Governance in European Risk Assessment and Risk Management Institutions

Hosted by and at the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR).

Registration

Please registrate here on the BfR website

Location

Berlinbiotechpark, Conference Center, Max-Dohrn-Straße 8-10, 10589 Berlin, Germany

How to get there

Event dates

June 2-3 2016

About the event

Public participation, stakeholder involvement and engagement are well-established concepts in academia as well as an integral part of the risk analysis framework that includes risk assessment, risk management and risk communication. Participatory and cooperative forms of communication have also been described as one characteristic of a new mode of governance, that takes into account not only scientific knowledge but aims at producing a robust knowledge base for policy decisions. Against this background, risk agencies have to varying degrees incorporated participation and stakeholder involvement, but these institutional reactions differ among countries and cases. Accordingly, risk agencies in different countries have employed participatory approaches differently. Finally, different cases demand for different solutions, leading to different participatory answers.

Therefore, the workshop aims at bringing together not only the academic and the practical perspective but provides an overview of theoretical approaches that strongly support participatory approaches and of approaches that tend to take up a more sceptical stance on participation. In a second step, real-life experiences from different countries and institutions will be introduced, aiming to provide an overview of already existing and established participation procedures at different levels of the risk analysis process. Finally, the experiences presented will be discussed with social scientists and risk assessors, risk managers and risk communicators to ensure a dialogue on the pros and cons of participation with stakeholders from all parts of the risk analysis process.