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The Precautionary Principle and Traditional Risk Assessment

Rethinking How We Assess and Mitigate Environmental Threats

Colorado State University

The article begins by problematizing the risk assessment and precautionary principle frameworks. From here, attention turns toward the development of an alternative, more holistic, scheme for assessing and mitigating environmental threats. Recognizing that the assessment and mitigation of environmental threats is a multilayered process, discussion centers on the question of who is involved in the production process—from research to development to threat assessment. Including a variety of stakeholders in both the "front" and "back" ends of production thus also places focus on the material side of this process, particularly in terms of what is being produced and released into the environment. Traditional risk assessment and the precautionary principle are therefore presented as shortsighted strategies for threat assessment. Instead, a more open approach is discussed, which involves greater public involvement through the entire life cycle of a product, from "cradle to cradle".

Key Words: risk • precaution • knowledge • expertise • technology • democracy • participation • production • power

Organization & Environment, Vol. 20, No. 1, 5-24 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1086026607300319


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