Systemic risks: Common characteristics and approaches for improving resilience

Abstract

In this article, I aim to delineate the genesis and analytical scope of risk governance. Risk governance pertains to the various ways in which many actors, individuals and institutions, public and private, deal with risks surrounded by uncertainty, complexity and/or ambiguity. The ambition is that risk governance provides a conceptual as well as normative basis for how to deal responsibly with complex risks. I propose to synthesize the body of scholarly ideas and proposals on the governance of risks in a set of management regimes: the combination of risk-based, precautionary and discourse-based management regimes. This set of regimes should be read as a synthesis of what needs to be seriously considered in organizing structures and processes to govern risks and to include stakeholders in the assessment and evaluation of risks.