This research line seeks to enrich current STS research on risk by complementing it with the notion of vulnerability. We hope that an agenda in terms of vulnerabilities will allow for a novel and broader understanding of key questions related to risks and benefits of science and technology in modern societies. Broadening the analysis from risk to vulnerability will draw attention to issues of justice, solidarity, and livelihood. It will also help us to include comparative research on societies in the global north and south. Research is often based on empirical case studies. We elaborate concepts that illustrate the ambiguity, context-dependency and constructed character of the vulnerability problem. We also investigate which implications the various analyses of vulnerability may have for addressing issues of politics and governance of risk and vulnerability.
Projects on governance of risk and vulnerability
- Responsible Innovation in Biogas in India (NWO-RRI project)
- Exnovation – Another perspective on patient safety
- The societal dynamics of controversies around the siting of mobile phone base stations
- Nanotechnology for Development in India, Kenya, and the Netherlands
- How States account for failure in Europe (How-SAFE)
- MILESECURE-2050: Multidimensional impact of the low-carbon European strategy on energy security, and socio-economic dimension up to 2050 perspective
- Publics of GM crops: A transnational analysis of democracy in an era of globalising techno-science
- Publics, Politics, and Technoscience in Contemporary Indian Contexts
- Europe goes critical
- Brokering environmentally sustainable sanitation for Europe (BESSE)
- Complex interactions between international standardization and national innovation projects