 |
I2S Network menu |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
I2S Network activities |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Site use/contacts |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
The Uncertainty and Risk Book
 |
Book details:
Uncertainty and Risk: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (2008), Gabriele Bammer and Michael Smithson (eds),
Earthscan Risk in Society Series
Brief overview
Uncertainty governs our lives. From the unknowns of living with the risks of terrorism to developing policies
on genetically modified foods, or disaster planning for catastrophic climate change, how we conceptualize,
evaluate and cope with uncertainty drives our actions and deployment of resources, decisions and priorities.
In this thorough and wide-ranging volume, theoretical perspectives are drawn from art history, complexity science,
economics, futures, history, law, philosophy, physics, psychology, statistics and theology. On a practical level,
uncertainty is examined in emergency management, intelligence, law enforcement, music, policy and politics. Key
problems that are a subject of focus are environmental management, communicable diseases and illicit drugs. Opening
and closing sections of the book provide major conceptual strands in uncertainty thinking and develop an integrated
view of the nature of uncertainty, uncertainty as a motivating or de-motivating force, and strategies for coping
and managing under uncertainty.
Background information
The Uncertainty and Risk book began life at a conference on uncertainty held outside Canberra,
Australia, in 2005 and is the work of twenty-nine chapter authors and two editors (details on editors).
In May of 2008 the book was published by Earthscan (and is available for purchase) and was launched. If you would like a quick look inside the book,
Chapter 1 is available for downloading (PDF 301 KB) and there is a list of the
book contents below as well. As reviews are published we plan to collate
them into this page for viewing. |
To purchase Uncertainty and Risk:
Book launch of Uncertainty and Risk:
The Uncertainty and Risk book was launched by Professor Michael Wesley, Griffith Asia Institute, ARC Centre of Excellence
in Policing and Security, on the 8th of May 2008 at the Australian National University
(PDF of launch notification).
There is audio-visual material available on the launch:
- Audio recording:
MP3 of Professor Michael Wesley's presentation -
link for the MP3 is at the bottom of the opened web page (another option to listen to the same recording is here).
Instructions for listening to an MP3, if required: to listen to the MP3 in your browser, simply click on the link. Please note this usually requires that you
either have Windows Media Player (PC) or Quicktime (PC or MAC) installed. To download the MP3 and play it from
your hard drive, right-click and select "Save Target As..." (PC) or CMD-click and select "Save File As..." (MAC),
and then choose where you want to save the file.
- SlowTV recording (two part): from The Monthly's website
(Professor Michael Wesley's presentation SlowTV recording Part 1
and SlowTV Part 2).
A series of three photographs from the book launch of Uncertainty and Risk: Multidisciplinary Perspectives |
| Officially involved at the book launch on 8th of May 2008 were, from left to right,
Professor Lawrence Cram (The Australian National University Deputy Vice-Chancellor), Professor Michael Wesley (Griffith Asia
Institute, ARC Centre of Excellence in Policing and Security),
Professor Gabriele Bammer (The Australian National University National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health and a Research Fellow at the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University),
Associate Professor Alison Ritter (Director, Drug Policy Modelling Project), and
Professor Michael Smithson (The Australian National University School of Psychology). |
 |
| Launching the book and discussing 'Risk, Uncertainty and
the Future of National Security' was Professor Michael Wesley (Griffith Asia
Institute, ARC Centre of Excellence in Policing and Security). |
 |
 |
Download Chapter 1 of Uncertainty and Risk:
Download Chapter 1 of Uncertainty and Risk (PDF 4.5 MB)
Contents of Uncertainty and Risk:
- Preface
- Part I: Setting the Scene
- Introduction (Gabriele Bammer & Michael Smithson)
- The Many Faces and Masks of Uncertainty (Michael Smithson)
- Adopting Orphans: Uncertainty and Other Neglected Aspects of Complex Problems (Gabriele Bammer)
- Part II: More than a Cabinet of Curiosities: Disciplinary and Practice Perspectives on Uncertainty
- When Action Can’t Wait: Investigating Infectious Disease Outbreaks (Aileen J. Plant)
- Uncertainty and Religion: Ten Provisional Theses (Stephen Pickard)
- Uncertainty in the Physical Sciences: How Big? How Small? Is It Actually There At All? (Stephen J. Buckman)
- Statistics: An Essential Tool for Model Citizens (Robyn G. Attewell)
- A Philosopher’s Guide to Probability (Alan Hájek)
- Musical Improvisation, Creativity and Uncertainty (John Mackey)
- Uncertainty as a Creative Force in Visual Art (Sasha Grishin)
- Historians and Disputes over Uncertainty (Ann Curthoys)
- Approaches to Uncertain Futures (Kate Delaney)
- Embracing Social Uncertainties with Complex Systems Science (Pascal Perez)
- Heroin: Injected with Uncertainty (Alison Ritter)
- Political Practice: Uncertainty, Ethics and Outcomes (Michael Moore)
- Smoke and Mirrors: Managing Uncertainty in the Public Health Sector (Liz Furler)
- Economists and Uncertainty (John Quiggin)
- Psychology’s Ambivalent View of Uncertainty (Michael Smithson)
- Uncertainty in Decision-making: Intelligence as a Solution (Steve Longford)
- Emergency Management Thrives on Uncertainty (John Handmer)
- Uncertainty, Complexity and the Environment (Stephen Dovers, Michael Hutchinson, David Lindenmayer, Adrian Manning,
Frank Mills, Paul Perkins, Jason Sharples and Ian White)
- Uncertainty, Terrorism and Law Enforcement (Michael McFadden, Rod Lyon and Roy Pinsker)
- Certainty as Illusion: The Nature and Purpose of Uncertainty in the Law (Judith S. Jones)
- Part III: Unifying Diversity
- The Nature of Uncertainty (Gabriele Bammer, Michael Smithson and the Goolabri Group)
- Uncertainty Metaphors, Motives and Morals (Michael Smithson, Gabriele Bammer and the Goolabri Group)
- Coping and Managing under Uncertainty (Michael Smithson, Gabriele Bammer and the Goolabri Group)
- Part IV: Implications for Risk Assessment and Management
- Coping with Deep Uncertainty: Challenges for Environmental Assessment and Decision-making (Roger E. Kasperson)
- Risk, Uncertainty and Social Controversy: From Risk Perception and Communication to Public Engagement (Nick Pidgeon)
- Index
About the editors of Uncertainty and Risk:
- Gabriele Bammer is a Professor at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at The Australian National
University and a Research Fellow at the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University.
- Michael Smithson is a Professor at the School of Psychology at The Australian National University.
Reviews of Uncertainty and Risk:
Reviews from the back cover of the book
"This is a major, and deeply thoughtful, contribution to understanding uncertainty and risk. Our world and its
unprecedented challenges need such ways of thinking! Much more than a set of contributions from different
disciplines, this book leads you to explore your own way of perceiving your own area of work. An outstanding
contribution that will stay on my shelves for many years". Dr Neil T. M. Hamilton, Director, WWF
International Arctic Programme.
"This collection of essays provides a unique and fascinating overview of perspectives on uncertainty
and risk across a wide variety of disciplines. It is a valuable and accessible sourcebook for specialists
and laypeople alike". Professor Renate Schubert, Head of the Institute for Environmental Decisions and Chair
of Economics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.
"This comprehensive collection of disciplinary perspectives on uncertainty is a definitive
guide to contemporary insights into this Achilles’ heel of modernity and the endemic hubris of
institutional science in its role as public authority. It gives firm foundations to the fundamental
historic shift now underway in the world, towards normalizing acceptance of the immanent condition of
ignorance and of its practical corollaries: contingency, uncontrol, and respect for difference". Brian Wynne,
Professor of Science Studies, Lancaster University.
"Bammer and Smithson have assembled a fascinating, important collection of papers on uncertainty
and its management. The integrative nature of Uncertainty and Risk makes it a landmark in the intellectual
history of this vital cross-disciplinary concept". George Cvetkovich, Director, Center for Cross-Cultural Research,
Western Washington University.
Full reviews (last updated June 3rd 2009)
- Heyman, Bob. (2009). Risk and uncertainty: A review of three recent texts. Health, Risk & Society, 11, 1: 87-90
- Simons, Greg. (2009). Uncertainty and Risk: Multidisciplinary Perspectives. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 17, 2: 141-141
Commentary
|
Home
Browse resources
