Abstract: Decisions are made by human beings acting in place- and time-bound moral, social and administrative contexts where interests differ, perspectives diverge and priorities vary. Many decisions are complex in that they build on networks of assisting and depending decisions nodes and links. They are also complex in that they are nested in past decisions and arisen situations that condition how and which new decisions can or cannot be taken (a situational feature known as “path dependency”). In public affairs, decisions are made even more complex by the fact that whether or not an issue should be considered as a problem to be decided upon can, in itself, at any time become a matter of contestation and debate. Decision-makers and stakeholders do not automatically share the same interpretation about what a problem consists of, how it should be addressed, what the solutions might be, or which knowledge that “counts”.
The programme is geared toward addressing how public actors make decisions on risk and safety within transportation systems. The scientific goal is to unfold what it means to make decisions on risk in a plural society where many co-existing specialised authorities and institutions need to co-ordinate their actions in order to reach broad societal goals, e.g. availability, sustainability or regional development. In reality this kind of decision processes include institutional actors with diverging goals, methods of operation and decision logics. We intend to primarily focus on specific questions such as: “How do decision makers identify a risk? How does a risk become part of the decision process? Or: Once a risk has become part of the decision process, how is it dealt with and how does it affect the process of decision-making?”. Such questions will lead us to address also more general questions such as: “What is a risk-decision?”, “What is risk decision-making?” or even “What does it mean that a decision is ‘taken’?” and “How can one recognise a decision?”.
A practical goal is that knowledge generated by the programme can be of use to decision-makers to enhance their understanding of the circumstances under which they and others make decisions. The programme aims to provide managers within the transportation sector with analytical tools that can increase their risk decision-making competence and make risk management more efficient.