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social learning. This places much greater emphasis on the
notion of wellbeing with its qualities of personal esteem,
confidence building, leadership, enterprise, and cooperation
as a basis for improving personal and public health; for
enabling capabilities to flourish in everyone; and for offering
meaningful ways to change local circumstances for the
betterment of neighbours as well as of families. Only a
flourishing and more equalizing society can converse across
social space with confidence and compassion.
Science can play a vital part in this process. Alex Ryan
and Daniela Tilbury argue for new approaches to learning
for sustainability leadership for young people 10 . They call for
a fresh approach to critical analysis; to more cooperative
forms of learning between students and faculty and all
manner of stakeholders beyond the classroom; and for much
more creative approaches to combining the imaginings of
all pupils in laying out future outcomes and consequences
for the fair treatment of future generations. Theirs is a plea
for much more student leadership in learning, and for much
greater freedom to explore fresh approaches to analysing
circumstances and devising ways forward. Here is a recipe
for a science for sustainability in which holding a wider
conversation plays a fascinating and creative role.
This report covers all of the key features of relating
innovation to risk. It especially concentrates on the many
ways in which risks are judged, and the emerging global
and local contexts in which decisions have to be made
regarding innovation to better future societies the world
over. And it forces recognition of the requirement of
resilience in the design of innovative success. Resilience
is sometimes misapplied as a byword for sustainability
because the essential ingredient of sustainability is selfreliance.
Self-reliance can best be visualized and attained by a
setting for innovation where wellbeing, fairness, adaptability
and leadership enable everyone to converse with shared
understanding for a much more fair and tolerable
democracy in a limiting but forgiving planet.
Holding a wider conversation, therefore, has to take into
account changing perceptions of democracy, fairness of
treatment, opportunities for flourishing, and a culture of
belonging to the ever-changing worlds of risk and innovation.
It is by no means confined to conversing. Nick Pidgeon
observes in Chapter 8 that risk tolerance is a function of
critical trust formation which arrives with creative forms
of engagement and independent referentials of advice
and commentary. We shall see that such procedures
are now being offered by the government in its recently
revised consultation White Paper on geological disposal of
radioactive waste 11 .
On widening engagement
The Lords’ Committee on Science and Technology reviewed
the troubled relationship between science and society 12 . It
noted strands that are carried forward in this report, namely
that science is being dissected for its probity, its sources
of funding and its intended audience. The Committee also
examined how science is standing in the public dock over
who seems to be gaining from its benefits and over what
period of time, and to what degree science is attentive to
various underlying public concerns that normally transcend
scientific analysis. Two particular observations presented in
the executive summary of the Committee’s report stand
out:
• “Some issues currently treated by decision-makers as
scientific issues in fact involve many other factors besides
science. Framing the problem wrongly by excluding moral,
social, ethical and other concerns invites hostility.”
• “Underlying people’s attitudes to science are a variety of
values. Bringing these into the debate and reconciling them
are challenges for the policy-maker.”
Four cases of risk in relation to both science and
technological innovation emphasize these observations.
One is the BSE scare, which highlighted the contentious
links between bioscience and the commercial food industry
(see Chapter 9). Another similar theme, still very much in
evidence, is the long running public hostility to genetically
modified (GM) crops and food (see case study in Chapter
11). A third, also yet to be resolved, is the non-acceptance
of safe disposal of long-lived radioactive waste (see below).
The fourth, also still highly politically contentious, is the
hydraulic fracturing of methane-containing shale formations
(see case study on fracking at the end of Section 2). These
case studies contribute to the evidence base of this chapter.
What characterizes all four of these typical but not
exhaustive innovation-risk examples is the science-led
initial development; the connection to a profitmaking
commercial sector; an unbalanced distribution between
those who gain and those who are exposed to the
perceived risks; an inconsistency over the seemingly wide
ranging general benefit of the technology and the localized
or targeted exposure to any residual risks; complicated
time frames of immediate gain and prolonged uncertain
disadvantages, especially for future generations; and a deeply
felt resentment amongst vociferous antagonists that their
preciously held underlying values are being excluded from
the final policy decision. In essence these case studies
Only a flourishing
and more equalizing
society can converse
across social space
with confidence and
compassion.