NCJ Number
228604
Journal
Risk Management Volume: 11 Issue: 3-4 Dated: July/October 2009 Pages: 208-240
Date Published
October 2009
Length
33 pages
Annotation
This paper draws on accounts of risk that contribute to an interdisciplinary understanding of emerging technological risk, i.e., how a specific technology exposes society to different threats or hazards.
Abstract
The social aspects of technology, i.e., how groups and individuals interact with and use the technology enhances the understanding of emerging technological risk. This paper divides these risks into three classes: "boundary" hazards, "evolutionary" hazards, and "performativity" hazards. "Boundary" hazards highlight the vulnerabilities of organizational boundaries. Technology often exposes organizations to the propagation of hazards across organizational boundaries that stretch the limits of control and security capabilities. "Evolutionary" hazards emerge due to a lack of control over how technologies will be used or applied in particular social and commercial contexts. Social networks extend technology and expose organizations to emerging hazards. "Performativity" hazards occur as particular groups establish social links via technology that hardens social networks and creates homogeneous communities based in particular technologies of communication. This poses the risk of reducing diversity and structural resilience. In identifying these new classes of socio-technical hazards, this paper provides a framework that enhances microscopic and macroscopic levels of risk analysis. 2 figures, 18 notes, and 85 references