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Institutionalized Ignorance as a Precondition for Rational Risk Expertise
Author(s) -
Merkelsen Henrik
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
risk analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.972
H-Index - 130
eISSN - 1539-6924
pISSN - 0272-4332
DOI - 10.1111/j.1539-6924.2010.01576.x
Subject(s) - ignorance , rationality , risk perception , affect (linguistics) , loyalty , situated , perception , psychology , risk management , precondition , risk assessment , risk analysis (engineering) , social psychology , knowledge management , business , political science , computer science , marketing , communication , finance , neuroscience , artificial intelligence , law , programming language , computer security
The present case study seeks to explain the conditions for experts’ rational risk perception by analyzing the institutional contexts that constitute a field of food safety expertise in Denmark. The study highlights the role of risk reporting and how contextual factors affect risk reporting from the lowest organizational level, where concrete risks occur, to the highest organizational level, where the body of professional risk expertise is situated. The article emphasizes the role of knowledge, responsibility, loyalty, and trust as risk‐attenuation factors and concludes by suggesting that the preconditions for the expert's rationality may rather be a lack of risk‐specific knowledge due to poor risk reporting than a superior level of risk knowledge.