ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an initial summary of the literature in order to feed nascent mental models of this subject. The literature that most closely relates to this conception of risk is the literature about accidents. The research focused on the body of existing knowledge pertaining to risk and the relevant literature was reviewed. The key assessment criteria when looking at each concept in the literature is the idea of foresight or hindsight. The risk governance considerations that emerge from the literature pertinent. As important as this process is, there is little literature debating the relative merits of the various forms of synthesis available. Most of the academic literature that relates to risk management and synthesis is looking at the research methodology used in academic papers. Here the literature has made us aware of two phenomena of interest. Examining this literature highlights one key but depressing fact.
