Social decision making in the context of scientific controversies

Abstract Scientific controversies about environmental risks highlight institutional rules that structure economic activities and call into question pure models of substantive rationality used by environmental economists. Such controversies illustrate how institutional changes and the setting of technological norms are key processes which open and close the scope for future alternative worlds and circumscribe possibilities for action. The author provides a descriptive model of these processes as they have operated in three cases: forest death in Europe; stratospheric ozone depletion; and global warming. He concludes that policy making should shift from a focus on static conceptions of economic efficiency to time-sensitive management of the relations between the development of science; the dynamics of mass media interests; the rhythms of technological innovations; investment flows; and political cycles.