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Can Policy Be Risk‐Based? The Cultural Theory of Risk and the Case of Livestock Disease Containment
Author(s) -
Duckett Dominic,
Wynne Brian,
Christley Rob M.,
Heathwaite A. Louise,
Mort Maggie,
Austin Zoe,
Wastling Jonathan M.,
Latham Sophia M.,
Alcock Ruth,
Haygarth Philip
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
sociologia ruralis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.005
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1467-9523
pISSN - 0038-0199
DOI - 10.1111/soru.12064
Subject(s) - reductionism , risk management , politics , biosecurity , epistemology , objectivity (philosophy) , sociology , scope (computer science) , political science , economics , computer science , law , medicine , management , philosophy , programming language , pathology
This article explores the nature of calls for risk‐based policy present in expert discourse from a cultural theory perspective. Semi‐structured interviews with professionals engaged in the research and management of livestock disease control provide the data for a reading proposing that the real basis of policy relating to socio‐technical hazards is deeply political and cannot be purified through ‘escape routes’ to objectivity. Scientists and risk managers are shown calling, on the one hand, for risk‐based policy approaches while on the other acknowledging a range of policy drivers outside the scope of conventional quantitative risk analysis including group interests, eventualities such as outbreaks, historical antecedents, emergent scientific advances and other contingencies. Calls for risk‐based policy are presented, following cultural theory, as ideals connected to a reductionist epistemology and serving particular professional interests over others rather than as realistic proposals for a paradigm shift.