Over the last few decades, the World largely moved beyond bounded risks with immediate and obvious negative physical impacts towards globally interconnected, nonlinear risks like climate change or financial crises. Conventional risk management proves inadequate to deal with these problems characterized by complexity, uncertainty and political ambiguity, and managers need different decision-making tools.
“We need a form of risk management that demonstrably mitigates risk, is economical with the scarce resources available, helps to overcome unlikely but possible setbacks, and enables the resultant benefits and risks to be evenly shared.”
Responding adequately to global systemic risks, Prof. Ortwin Renn argued a challenge for our world society where national interests and different cultures conflict with efficient responses. Governance of systemic risks requires strategies that address the complexity, scientific uncertainty, and sociopolitical ambiguity of its underlying relationships. However, national and international attempts to address systemic risks have decoupled risk anticipation from sustainable and resilient risk management processes and structures. Furthermore, the modernization process facilitates the emergence of plural knowledge and value claims that leads to the request of multiple stakeholders to be part of the risk management process. A vivid discussion followed the lecture in which among other issues the notion of inequality and knowledge was critically discussed.
Ortwin Renn is Scientific Director at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam (Germany). He remains affiliated to his former institute, the Stuttgart Research Center for Interdisciplinary Risk and Innovation Studies, and continues to co-direct the non-profit company DIALOGIK, a research institute for the investigation of communication and participation processes. Prof. Renn’s research focuses on risk governance, political participation and technology assessment. He held teaching and research positions in different institutions in Europe, China and the US and was appointed on various scientific advisory boards, including the German Federal Government’s Commission on Energy Ethics after Fukushima. In 2013 he was awarded the German National Cross of Merit in recognition of his outstanding academic performance.