The framing of risk and implications for policy and governance: the case of EMF

Abstract

The conceptualization of risk as objective, subjective, real or perceived has huge implications for its management as regards policy and governance. The sociological literature concerned with the science, technology and risks associated with electromagnetic fields (EMF) can be broadly divided into two main bodies of literature. The Social Amplification of Risk Framework (SARF) which sees risk as both an objective yet subjective phenomenon and the anthropological branch of Science and Technology Studies (STS) which stems from a more constructivist premise. These distinct bodies of knowledge frame the separate components of the EMF issue differently. Distinct attitudes to uncertainty and ignorance have huge implications for the subsequent governance of risk. How these two distinct bodies of knowledge consequently elaborate strategies of risk communication, public education and public participation gives us insight into the projected relationship between science and society, experts and laypeople, and technocrats and citizens.