Often concepts of sustainability have been criticised for being theoretically ill-founded and lacking practical impact. This paper provides a new theoretical foundation of sustainable development, which is based on a coherent set of three normative and functional categories: systems integrity,...

Cross-impact analysis is the name for a familiar method for multidisciplinary systems analysis in social sciences and management sciences, especially in technology foresight, technology assessment and scenario planning. A recently proposed form of cross-impact analysis, CIB, may be of interest...

The notion "risk governance" refers to an integrated concept on how to deal with complex, ambiguous and uncertain impacts in particular. The notion of governance pertains to the many ways in which all relevant actors, individuals and institutions, public and private, deal with interventions that...

The term 'governance' has been used in political science to describe the multitude of actors and processes that lead to collective binding decisions. The term 'risk governance' involves the translation of the substance and core principles of governance to the context of risk-related...

The article will conceptualize procedural mechanisms and structural configurations of risk governance with adaptive and integrative capacity in a general and comprehensive manner in order to better grasp the dynamics, structures, and functionality of risk-handling processes. Adaptive and...

In the social sciences, two prevailing definitions of risk are: (1) risk is a situation or event where something of human value (including humans themselves) is at stake and where the outcome is uncertain; (2) risk is an uncertain consequence of an event or an activity with respect to something...

Genetically modified (GM) crops provide a classic example of risk characterised with uncertainty and ambiguity. This article analyses the risk management of GM crops in Japan as a case and investigates how the Japanese government has responded to the growing public demand for safety assurance of...

Technology has become a familiar companion in all areas of life. Production consumption, administration, education, communication, and leisure activities are all shaped by the use of technologies. However, people often associate with the term 'technology' attributes, such as catastrophic and...

Efforts to site a high level nuclear waste repository in Germany date back to the 1960s. Ten years later the site Gorleben was officially selected and designated as a host for nuclear waste. However, public opposition and maneuvering by the major political actors prevented the completion of the...