University of Strasbourg – Specialization

THE POLITICS OF KNOWLEDGE: ASSESSING AND COMMUNICATING RISK

Course description
Public concerns about some of the latest scientific and technological developments, such as genetically modified food, human cloning, environmental degradation, more reliable prediction of natural hazards, etc., reflect a new relation between science and its publics. As science and technology encroaches into nearly every part of our working environment as well as our private lives, we are increasingly asked – not only as individuals but also as social groups – to take decisions that are linked to at least some understanding of scientific and technological knowledge. This specialisation will examine the emergence and the understanding of the notion of risk in our society, ask who assesses risk and with what authority (granted by whom?). Investigating these issues will allow students to trace an ever-evolving and changing politics of knowledge that we shape to a large extent through our political, scientific, social and cultural choices.

List of core literature

  • Beck, Ulrich. Risk society: towards of new modernity (London: Sage, 1992).
  • Daston, Lorraine, “Objectivity and the escape from perspective”, Social Studies of Science, 22 (1992) 597-618.
  • Fogel, Cathleen, “The Local, the Global, and the Kyoto Protocol”, in: Jasanoff, Sheila and Marybeth Long Martello (eds), Earthly Politics: local and global in environmental governance (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2004), pp. 103-125.
  • Gigerenzer, Gerd. Reckoning with risk: learning to live with uncertainty (London: Allen Lane, 2002), pp. 115-140 (chapter 7: “Aids counseling”)
  • Irwin, Alan & Wynne, Brian, (eds), Misunderstanding Science ? The Public Reconstruction of Science and Technology, (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1996)
  • Jasanoff, Sheila, “Image and imagination: The formation of global environmental consciousness”, in: Clark A. Miller and Paul N. Edwards (eds.), Changing the atmosphere: Expert knowledge and environmental governance (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2001), pp. 309-337.
  • Miller Clark A. and Paul N. Edwards (eds.), Changing the atmosphere: Expert knowledge and environ mental governance (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2001).
  • Miller, David, “Risk, science and policy: definitional struggles, information management, the media and BSE” Social Science & Medicine 49 (1999) 1239-1255.
  • Miller, Steve & Gregory, Jane, Science in Public : Communication, Culture and Credibility, (New York : Plenum Press, 1998).
  • Nelkin Dorothy, Selling Science. How the Press Covers Science and Technology (New York : Freeman & Compagny, 1995)
  • Renn, Ortwin. “Concepts of risk: a classification”, in: Sheldon Krimsky, Dominic Golding (eds.), Social theories of risk (Westport: Praeger, 1992), pp. 53- 79.
  • Schneider, Stephen H. et al. (eds), Climate Change Policy (Washington: Island Press, 2002).
  • Shapin, Steven, ‘Rarely Pure and Never Simple: Talking about Truth’ Configurations 7.1 (1999) 1-14
  • Slovic, Paul. The perception of risk (London: Earthscan, 2000).
  • Weingart, Peter, Anita Engels, and Petra Pansegrau, “Risks of communication: discourses on climate change in science, politics, and the mass media”, Public Understanding of Science 9 (2000), pp. 261-283.

    • Language of instruction: English

    Minimum and maximum number of students: 3-10

    Example of thesis topics
    Transboundary River management: An Assessment of International Cooperation on the Risk of Flooding along the River Meuse (Marit Heideman)

    Differing Views of Uncertainty in Environmental Controversies: The Kearl Oils Sands Case, 2003-2008 in Canada (Zoë Robaey)

    Risk Society as a Risk for Developing Countries: The Case of Italian Toxic Waste Dumped on the Black Sea (Ozgur Cengiz)

    Nanotechnology in context: Science, non-governmental organisations and the challenge of communication (Janina Schirmer)

    Establishing Product Safety in Europe: The Case of the Genetically Modified Potato Amflora (Elisabeth Mueller)

    Should uncertainty trigger the precautionary principle? The controversy on drilling for gas in the Dutch Wadden Sea (1998-1999) (Bart van Oost)

    Thesis examples

    Differing Views of Uncertainty in Environmental Controversies: The Kearl Oils Sands Case – Zoë Robaey

    Nanotechnology in context: Science, non-governmental organisations and the challenge of communication – Janina Schirmer

    Establishing Product Safety in Europe: The Case of the Genetically Modified Potato Amflora – Elisabeth Mueller

    Should uncertainty trigger the precautionary principle? The controversy on drilling for gas in the Dutch Wadden Sea – Bart van Oost

    Schedule for the introductory course
    The introductory course will take place in February and March 2011

    Web link: http://mastersts.u-strasbg.fr/

    Coordinator
    Dr. Matthias Dörries, dorries@unistra.fr

    Possible Supervisors:
    Matthias Dörries (Natural hazards and risk)
    Françoise Olivier-Utard (Risk at work)
    Marion Thomas (Medecine, biotechnology and Risk)