Searching for Safety

Nuclear power plants, new vaccines and drugs, pesticides designed to improve agricultural production, and a plethora of other technological advances hold great promise of improving the quality of human life, but also pose great risks to human well-being.

Aaron Wildavsky (1930-1993) was considered one of the most innovative and prolific scholars in the field of political research and he was most famous for his role in developing the cultural theory of risk.

Introduction: The Jogger's Dilemma or What Should We Do When the Safe and the Dangerous are Inextricably Intertwined? SECTION I: STRATEGIES 1. Trial and Error Versus Trial Without Error 2. Opportunity Benefits Versus Opportunity Risks 3. Richer Is Sicker Versus Richer Is Safer 4. Anticipation Versus Resilience SECTION II: CONDITIONS 5. Nonhuman Life Forms Cope with Danger 6. Does Adding Safety Devices Increase Safety in Nuclear Power Plants? (with Elizabeth Nichols, and an appendix by Robert Budnitz) 7. The Battle Within: How the Human Body Defends Itself (with Dennis J. Coyle) 8. From Resilience to Anticipation: Why the Tort Law is Unsafe (with Daniel Polisar) SECTION III: PRINCIPLES 9. Why Less is More: A Taxonomy of Error (with William R. Havender) 10. The Secret of Safety Lies in Danger