SRA-E Lisbon 2017

Regulatory use of the Precautionary Principle (PP) tends to be broadly characterized either as a responsible approach for safeguarding against health and environmental risks in the face of scientific uncertainties, or as ‘state mismanagement’ driven by undue political bias and public anxiety. However, the ‘anticipatory’ basis upon which governments variably draw a political warrant for adopting precautionary measures often remains ambiguous. Particularly, questions arise concerning whether the PP is employed pre-emptively by political elites from the ‘top-down’, or follows from more conventional democratic pressures exerted by citizens and other stakeholders from the ‘bottom-up’. Addressing this issue, this paper aims to elucidate citizen involvement in the precautionary politics shaping policy discourse and decision-making surrounding the UK Government’s ‘precautionary approach’ to mobile telecommunications technology and health. A case study is presented that critically re-examines the basis upon which UK Government action has been portrayed as an instance of anticipatory policymaking. Findings demonstrate that the use of the PP should not be understood in the pre-emptive terms communicated by UK Government officials alone, but must be interpreted in relation to the wider social context of the social amplification of risk and images of public concern in precautionary discourse formed between citizens, politicians, industry, and the media, which surrounded cycles of government policymaking. The paper concludes with discussion concerning the sociocultural conditions, political dynamics, and policy assumptions underpinning public influence on government anticipation and responsiveness, along with implications for how society subsequently comes to terms with the emergence and precautionary governance of new technologies.