Stakeholder Knowledge in Expert Judgments About Risk

INTEGRATING STAKEHOLDER KNOWLEDGE IN EXPERT JUDGMENTS ABOUT RISK 

Risk specialists have created a variety of frameworks to depict the process of risk management and assessment within large regulatory agencies (chapter 2). But they disagree about the role that stakeholders play in expert judgments about risk. Many risk specialists applaud the attempt to involve 

Both sides in this debate believe that research in communication can provide a tool to gain the confidence of stakeholders, incorporate their views 

Since no necessary connection exists between Pareto optimality (the central concept of benefit-cost analy.sis) or Bayesian rules and socially desirable policy, it would be helpful if there were some way to avoid the tendency to assume that economic methods or Bayesian rules, alone, reveal. socially desirable policy. Alternatively weighted a.ssess-ments would enable persons to see that sound policy is not only a matter of economic calculations but also a question of epistemological and ethical analysis, as well as citizens negotiations. (pp. 26-27) 

This analysis begs the question of whether citizens, experts, and regulatory agencies will be able to create new collaborative mechanisms that achieve the processes she recommends. 

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