The risk game (Reprinted from 'The risk game')

In the context of health, safety, and environmental decisions, the concept of risk involves value judgments that reflect much more than just the proba bility and consequences of the occurrence of an event. This article concept ualizes the act of defining and assessing risk as a game in which the rules must be socially negotiated within the context of a specific problem. This contextualist view of risk provides insight into why technical approaches to risk management often fail with problems such as those involving radiati on and chemicals, where scientific experts and the public disagree on the n ature of the risks. It also highlights the need for allowing the interested and affected parties to define and play the game, thus emphasizing the imp ortance of institutional, procedural, and societal processes in risk manage ment decisions. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.