This symposium presents research findings from a project funded by the Swedish research council Formas. The project explores risk communication by government agencies engaged in environmental protection, transportation, energy, chemicals, food, housing and building, and contingency planning. The project investigates the following dimensions: a) the understanding and practice of risk communication with regard to goals, means, principles, content, efficiency, conceptual foundation and consistency; b) harmonization and steering of risk communication policy and practice: interactions between agencies, collaboration, and sharing of responsibility; c) risk communication activities in relation to other strategic regulatory work: frameworks for risk assessment and risk management, inter-linkages of regulatory activities, role of dialogue and public participation, and transparency; d) underlying assumptions about the nature of risk communication: objectives, definitions, role of science, and role of quantification.
Data derives from content analysis of government agency web sites and instructions; semi-structured interviews with risk communication practitioners at the agencies; and in-depth case study of risk communication by selected agencies.
The project contributes to descriptive knowledge of the contextual dimensions of risk communication as an element of policy and government management. It answers to the lament that in practice, despite normative guidelines, risk communication appears to be just as problematic (perhaps even more so) than it was thirty years ago when it became a la mode in risk research. Results from the project provide insight into the organizational, regulatory and policy dimensions of risk communication as part of the responsibility of government agencies to foresee and promote a safe and sustainable future for citizens, nature and the environment.