Risk and the Public Acceptance of New Technologies

Our everyday world is constantly changing. Economic growth, globalisation and the continuous development of technology ensure that in all aspects of our lives — foodstuffs, energy, clothing, transport, health, employment, leisure, etc — established practices and equipment rapidly become obsolete and there are relentless pressures to innovate and ‘modernise’. In the majority of cases, these processes are driven by the capitalist market, as producers seek to shape consumer demand and as entrepreneurs champion new products and services. Part of the in-built dynamic of modern capitalism is that it is a profit-driven ‘growth machine’ characterised by perpetual technological innovation (Saunders, 1995). Such innovation consists of attempts to minimise or avoid technical problems with current machines and systems, and/or to increase cost efficiency, and/or to achieve radical breakthroughs to introduce completely new devices and methods. The shifts from coal to steam power, the availability of electricity, the evolution of motor vehicles and then air transport, the adoption of nuclear energy, the advance of computers and digital telecommunications, and new biotechnology industries are only a few illustrations of the fundamental transformations which have occurred in a relatively short historical period.