Co-knowledge production linking science, communities and public policy under deep uncertainty in a modern risk society in Japan

This paper focuses on the question of how to link science, communities, and public policy to address the structural challenges as seen in cascading disaster risks and deep uncertainty through cases in Japan from resilience perspectives. A modern risk society is characterized by complexities and uncertainties at different levels, as exemplified by cascading disaster risks driven by interactive forms of traditional, modern, or/ecological, social, and economic risks.

The changing risk landscape may (or may not) result in larger and more complex disasters; this shifting landscape of risks may also form cascading impacts that disrupt our human, social, and natural systems in the short-, mid-, and long-term, in unanticipated ways. Under these conditions, our modern risk society will not be understood primarily through our available knowledge but rather by a complex calculus premised on decision-making under uncertainties. 

Specifically, the paper provides a basis for a co-knowledge production system and process at the science-communities-public policy interface to manage the changing risk environment through collaborations among multi-stakeholders. Thus, the paper describes the relevant problems and challenges in the modern risk society and a problem-solving-oriented approach at the science-communities-public policy interface.