Ignore–Suppress–Dramatize: Reactions to Global Threat

Monday, 24 November 2014
Festsaal of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
1010 Wien, Dr. Ignaz Seipel Platz 2

Kerner von Marilaun lecture 2014
Ignore–Suppress–Dramatize: Reactions to Global Threat

Program

18:00 Opening
Anton Zeilinger: President of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW)
Gerhard Glatzel: Chairman of the Commission for Interdisciplinary Ecological Studies (KIÖS) of the ÖAW            

18:10-19:30 Lecture
Ortwin Renn, University of Stuttgart and DIALOGIK. Professor Ortwin Renn is a member of the German IIASA Committee  and Vice Chair of the German IIASA Executive Advisory Board.

Note: The event is in German; attendance is free of charge

Abstract

Ignore – Suppress  – Dramatize:  Reactions to Global Threat

The so-called systemic, creeping risks are underestimated by our society; they are partly ignored, suppressed, or—at suitable occasions—dramatized to the effect of conjuring a catastrophe. However, all of these reactions are inadequate to cope with today's complex and highly interconnected threats and lead to a standstill. There are basically three global focuses of threat, i.e., the increasing interference of man with nature (climate change, air pollution, utilization of land and water resources); a lacking or largely inefficient control of basic economic and political processes (capital markets, corruption, capacity deficiencies); and the negative side-effects of globalization and modernization (unequal living conditions, lack of security, loss of identity). In order to deal with these risks we need a transition toward a collective control model (governance), in which politics, economy, science, and civil society make a joint effort to control collectively binding decisions and establish the necessary framework for public and private actions. In this process politics would aim at resilience, economy at efficiency, science at effectiveness, and the civil society would aim at fairness and justice.

Publication relevant to the lecture: Ortwin Renn (2014). Das Risikoparadox: Warum wir uns vor dem Falschen fürchten. Fischer Verlag, ISBN 978-3-596-19811-5.

Last edited: 27 October 2014