Democratizing Risk Governance

Part provocation, part evaluation, part handbook, part call to action, Democratizing Risk Governance: Bridging Science, Expertise, Deliberation and Public Values presents the research findings of the ISSP's research project @Risk: How to Strengthen Risk Governance in Canada. It aims to advance scholarly and empirical understandings of public participation in risk decision-making, of ways to conceptualize and address differences in public and expert perceptions of risk, and means to foster public trust in risk governance

Part I focuses on cross-cutting concepts and issues such as motivated reasoning, the relationship between science and society, and tools to identify inequities in risk decision-making arrangements. Part II explores real word issues, challenges and cases of democratizing risk governance through a wide variety of authors, disciplines, theoretical perspectives, and methodological approaches. It features multiple case studies in three areas: public health (including COVID-19), genomics and energy.

Risk scholars and practitioners are grappling with how best to govern risk in the face of growing calls and rationales for democratization. The centrality of public trust to effective risk governance, the fragmentation of perceptions of risk, and growing expectations for public involvement in risk decision-making, all characterize risk governance in the twenty-first century.

The COVID-19 global health pandemic is an example underscoring the critical importance of public trust in risk decision-making. Whether trust in the safety of vaccines, trust in the necessity of lockdown measures, or trust in the very existence of the pandemic itself, successfully addressing the crisis has hinged on public confidence in government decisions. The pandemic has also made visible how perceptions of risk can differ among and between experts and the public, how public perceptions of risk are forever vulnerable to misinformation and disinformation, and the importance for governments of incorporating the views of citizens, communities and stakeholders into their decision-making.

It has become increasingly clear that effective risk governance requires successfully confronting differences in expert and public perceptions of risk, effectively engaging the public, and fostering public trust in decisions. All three objectives can challenge fundamental epistemological, cultural and ontological underpinnings of risk governance. Understanding the reasons why this is the case (and why not), carefully disentangling causes and effects, and providing case studies of real-world efforts to address the dilemmas, lays the groundwork for informed reform of risk governance arrangements.

Against this backdrop, the ISSP created the project, @Risk: How to Strengthen Risk Governance in Canada. @Risk aimed to advance scholarly and empirical understandings of public participation in risk decision-making, of ways to conceptualize and address differences in public and expert perceptions of risk, and means to foster public trust in risk governance.

The project comprised a multidisciplinary research team of more than two dozen scholars and graduate students from eleven Canadian and US universities, along with half a dozen senior practitioners from five partner organizations. Central to the project were practitioner members of the research team who gave generously of their time, experience and insights throughout the study to ensure the research was grounded in and informed by the ‘real worlds’ of risk governance.

This volume is based on the ISSP project @Risk: How to Strengthen Risk Governance in Canada. @Risk comprised a multidisciplinary research team of more than two dozen scholars and graduate students from eleven Canadian and US universities, along with half a dozen senior practitioners from five partner organizations:

1. the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories,
2. the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission,
3. the Canadian Public Health Association,
4. the Genetic Engineering and Society Center at North Carolina State University,
5. and the Institute for Science, Society and Policy at the University of Ottawa.

@Risk was funded by a Partnership Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (co-funded by Genome Canada), along with contributions from the project partners and the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Social Sciences.

• Sana Abdelkarim is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Public Administration & Policy, University at Albany, State University of New York, United States.
• Dr. Rukhsana Ahmed is associate professor and chair of the Department of Communication, University at Albany, State University of New York, United States, and Core Member of the Institute for Science, Society and Policy at the University of Ottawa.
• Mary C. Avery is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Psychology University at Albany, State University of New York, United States.
• Dr. Marisa Beck is the Clean Growth Director at the Canadian Climate Institute and for Research Director of the Institute for Science, Society and Policy at the University of Ottawa.
• Dr. Stephen Bird is associate professor of political science at Clarkson University, Potsdam, New York, United States, and Research Affiliate at Positive Energy at the University of Ottawa.
• Dr. Duane Bratt is full professor at the Department of Economics, Justice, and Policy Studies at Mount Royal Universityin Calgary, Alberta, Canada and Research Affiliate at Positive Energy at the University of Ottawa.
• Dr. Gabriela Capurro is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba, Canada.
• Dr. Kim H. Chuong is postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychology, College of Social and Applied Human Sciences, University of Guelph, Ontario.
• Dr. Elizabeth J. Cooper is assistant professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Health Studies, University of Regina in Saskatchewan.
• Dr. Heather Douglas is associate professor in the Department of Philosophy at Michigan State University, United States, and Senior Fellow at theInstitute for Science, Society and Policy at the University of Ottawa.
• Dr. S. Michelle Driedger is a professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba (Canada) and a proud member of the Manitoba Metis Nation.
• Brendan Frank is Senior Consultant at Innovative Research Group and former former Research Associate at the Institute for Science, Society and Policy at the University of Ottawa. He holds a master’s in public policy from the University of Calgary, Alberta.
• Dr. Monica Gattinger is Director of the Institute for Science, Society and Policy, full professor at the School of Political Studies, and founding chair of Positive Energy at the University of Ottawa.
• Dr. Cynthia (Cindy) Jardine is a professor and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Health and Community in the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Fraser Valley, British Columbia, Canada. 
• Dr. Simon J. Kiss is associate professor of political science at Wilfrid Laurier University in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. He serves as Director of the Laurier Institute for the Study of Public Opinion and Policy.
• Dr. Jennifer Kuzma is the Goodnight-NCGSK Foundation Distinguished Professor in the School of Public and International Affairs and co-founder of the Genetic Engineering and Society Center at North Carolina State University, United States. 
• Dr. Patricia Larkin is an independent risk consultant in Ottawa, Ontario. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Science, Society and Policy at the University of Ottawa, Canada.
• Ryan Maier is a study coordinator and qualitative research analyst at the University of Manitoba, Canada.
• Sara Minaeian is a Chief of Staff within Service Canada. She holds a bachelor degree from the University of Ottawa, and is completing her MSc in Social Science of the Internet at the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on AI and data governance.
• Dr. Stuart G. Nicholls is Senior Clinical Research Associate & Strategy for Patient Oriented Research Facilitator in the Clinical Epidemiology Program at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
• Laura Nourallah is doctoral candidate in public administration at the School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa, Canada.
• Dr. Kieran C. O’Doherty is associate professor at the Department of Psychology, College of Social and Applied Human Sciences at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
• Dr. Andrea M.L. Perrella is associate professor with the Department of Political Science at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
• Xavier Deschênes-Philion is Senior Economic Officer at the Embassy of Canada in France. He was previously a researcher at the Institute for Science, Society and Policy at the University of Ottawa, Canada.
• Dr. Dina Refki, D.A. is the Executive Director of the Center for Women in Government & Civil Society and Clinical Associate Professor at Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy, University at Albany, State University of New York, United States.
• Dr. Amanda Rotella is a lecturer in the Department of Psychology, School of Law, Social and Behavioural Sciences at Kingston University London, United Kingdom.
• Erting Sa is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication, University at Albany, State University of New York, United States.
• Dr. Ketan Shankardass is a social epidemiologist and associate professor in the Departments of Health Sciences and Psychology (Community Psychology) and leads the Health Equity Systems Interventions research group at the Laurier Centre for Community Research Learning and Action. 
• Dr. Jordan Tustin is an epidemiologist and assistant professor in the School of Occupational and Public Health at Toronto Metropolitan University, Ontario, Canada.
• Dr. Teshanee T. Williams is assistant professor of public administration and government at the School of Government, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, United States.
• Dr. Gregor Wolbring is full professor at the Cummings School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Science, Society & Policy at the University of Ottawa.