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Paper short abstract

Amid rising European floods, flood risk research seeks collaboration, yet STS is often included late. Drawing on an Italian project on risk communication, combining a national survey and public consultation, the paper reflects on practising STS as genuine collaboration.

Paper long abstract

As extreme flood events intensify across Europe, flood risk management has become a key arena for applied, interdisciplinary and impact-oriented environmental research. Yet, despite growing calls for co-production and collaboration, STS expertise is often included late or instrumentally, limiting its capacity to shape methods and outcomes. This paper reflects on the possibilities and tensions of practising STS as genuine collaboration within applied flood risk research.

The contribution draws on the project Risk Communication and Engagement for Societal Resilience, funded through Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) programme, which brought together historians, social scientists, risk experts, public institutions and civic stakeholders to investigate flood risk communication and citizen preparedness. Empirically, the study combines a nationally representative survey (n = 2,500) with a deliberative public consultation involving 100 citizens, developed through sustained interaction with policy-oriented partners.

Using this case, the paper examines how STS perspectives on risk, trust and communication were negotiated within a research setting shaped by friction, translation and alignment between science communication experts, social scientists and applied research demands. Our paper argues that resilience-oriented environmental projects offer a concrete space for reimagining multi-stakeholder co-production, reflexive governance, and genuinely collaborative socio-technical futures.