Paper short abstract:

This paper uses two case studies to examine the effect of uncertainty in destabilising measurements of risk. It shows how indicators become problematized and reordered in ways that highlight to nature of the underlying social and political structure of organisations and communities.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the effect of uncertainty in destabilising and problematizing measurements of risk. The paper examines two case studies - the use of statistics and disease classification during pandemic governance, and the problem of nuclear radiation measurement during post-disaster risk management. The first case study examines the global management of H1N1, focusing on the World Health Organization's use of indicators to signify and measure risk during the pandemic. It demonstrates the political destabilisation of epidemiological statistics and institutional classification schemes as a result of embedded uncertainties around the event. The second case study examines the measurement of radiation following the 2011 Fukushima triple disaster. It shows the problematisation of radiation risks. This is evident through public reconstructions of measurement, the malleability of understandings and indicators of 'safe' radiation levels among various social groupings, and the official use and community contestation of radiation measurement devices. Taken together these two analyses demonstrate the difficulties embedded in the measurement of risk under conditions of uncertainty. Here, indicators become problematized, deconstructed and reordered in ways that highlight to nature of the underlying social and political structure of organisations and communities.