Lee, Clarissa Ai Ling (2023) Managing `Wicked' Technoscientific Problems: The Postnormal Science of Risk Narratives. East Asian Science, Technology and Society-An International Journal, 17 (1). pp. 6-33. ISSN 1875-2160, DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/18752160.2023.2167486.
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
Radioactive waste management in Malaysia remains a wicked problem, the result of extracting technoscientific knowledge for techno-economic and industrial science purposes. Early policies were not cognizant of the full extent of these risks. Moreover, wicked problems are complex problems that emerged out of interactions as a result of particular ecological conditions. Postnormal science (PNS) becomes the framework for the negotiation of these complexities. Science-based problem-solving is broadened to include non-science epistemologies, which enables the legitimation of participatory epistemic interventions from lay experts. The problems encountered in radioactive waste management resulted from the high-stake uncertainties involved in measuring and evaluating risks and their causes. Wicked problems arise when there are disagreements over the governance of risk; incomplete information received as a result of obtuseness in the decision-making process, or in the blackboxing of the risks occurrences and mechanisms of predictions; and contextual interpretations of data provided by different expert stakeholders that could culminate into misinformation. Wicked problems in the two cases to be discussed will be considered through these lenses: ambivalence over technoscientific authorities and the structures of (dis)trust, the over-reducibility of complex technoscientific problems, and the difficulties in enacting extended peer review when participatory practices were traditionally excluded from policy-making.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Funders: | UNSPECIFIED |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | wicked problems; postnormal science; expertise; radioactive wastes; risk management |
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) |
| Divisions: | Faculty of Creative Arts (formerly known as the Cultural Centre) > Drama Department |
| Depositing User: | Ms. Juhaida Abd Rahim |
| Date Deposited: | 30 Oct 2025 08:27 |
| Last Modified: | 30 Oct 2025 08:27 |
| URI: | http://eprints.um.edu.my/id/eprint/49955 |
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