Risk Education: Bridging the divide between society and academia?

The risk-based approach is gaining prominence as a mechanism to organise and address societal questions. Although the merits of the concept are well understood in academic circles, popular readings of the term still centre on... [ view full abstract ]

The risk-based approach is gaining prominence as a mechanism to organise and address societal questions. Although the merits of the concept are well understood in academic circles, popular readings of the term still centre on a risk as a problem, as a thing to be avoided at (almost) all cost. This makes it difficult to let the full problem solving capacity of the concept develop itself in the spheres in which it should be used, i.e. decision making settings.
Our project aims to address this problem by giving older children, who have not been framed to view risk as a negative thing, but who are increasingly exposed to negatively framed information about risks in the media, the necessary thinking tools to help them gain a better understanding of the nature and benefits of the risk-concept.
We would like, within the conferences’ main theme of “Risk in Practice”, to discuss the first results of our pilot and explore possibilities for using this kind of playful interaction with children and young adults to help them gain an understanding of valuable ways of organising complex information in western society that is paradoxically getting both ever more risk-driven as risk-averse. Also the moral complications of using the risk concept in education would merit more attention, as was pointed out to us by Jerome Ravetz.