Risk research symposium

The management of risk has become a central contemporary concern of our age. The global economy is sliding into one of the worst recessions for decades, following a financial crisis in which highly complex and popular investment products turned ‘toxic’. Climate scientists are increasingly issuing dire warnings about accelerating global warming and its implications on our lives.

Ever since 9/11, threats of terrorist attacks loom large. These examples are just the some of the most salient ones, with other hazards, e.g. in biomedicine, nanotechnology, nuclear waste, or flooding, also attracting public attention. Yet whilst risk management has emerged as a new discipline with its own tools and techniques, it has faced numerous challenges.

In order to stimulate discussions about the potential value of, and obstacles to, critical risk research shaping actual practices of risk management, the Hazard and Risk Group of the Department of Geography at King’s College London and the NIHR King’s Patient Safety and Service Quality (PSSQ) Research Centre will host a one day symposium on “Varieties of risk research: Exploring and expanding boundaries within academia and beyond” on June 5th 2009.

Reflecting the varieties of risk research, the programme contains 20 papers on wide range of topics, from the mapping of flood risk to the negotiation of genetic risk and the management of prisons, presented by scholars from eight countries and critically commented upon by senior participants from different universities and public and private risk management organisations.

The funding for the event was generously provided through an Open Competition Grant by the School of Social Science and Public Policy and the Department of Geography of King’s College London.

For further information, please contact Kristian Krieger, Sebastien Nobert or Naonori Kodate.

Senior participants include;

Professor Georg Gaskell (LSE)
Mr Donald Macrae (Risk and Regulation Advisory Council, Department of Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform)
Dr Martin Lodge (LSE), Professor David Demeritt (King's College London)
Professor Brian Salter (King's College London)
Dr Carl Macrae (LSE/National Patient Safety Agency)
Professor John Adams (UCL)
Dr Swenja Surminski (Association of British Insurers)
Dr Henry Rothstein (King's College London)

Please see the attached PDF below for further details and the Call for Papers.