ABSTRACT
As shown by the “four chapters good, two chapters bad” episode over the 1992 Royal Society document (discussed at the outset in this book), conventional “enlightened engineering” approaches to public risk management have been assailed from several quarters. But the powerful countercharge from the beleaguered champions of “enlightened engineering” goes that those who attack the orthodox model have nothing workable to put in its place. All the challengers can offer, it is claimed, is essentially negative carping criticism and a few vague and ill defined ideas, most of which are directed at how to explain behaviour and attitudes rather than how to manage complex public risk issues. Consequently, the argument goes, “enlightened engineering” orthodoxy remains the only well workedout and publicly defensible approach, and deserves to be the central instrument of social risk management, faute de mieux.
