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Centre for Public Health in Economics and Business
Faculty of Economics and Business
Centre for Public Health in Economics and Business

Brown bag seminar: Jacob Reilley

When:Th 16-02-2023 11:00 - 12:00
Where:on-site

Title: The limits of risk in decision making: the role of "benefit" in governing health services

Abstract:
Previous research has shown that a great deal of work is required to transform risk into an object of calculation and decision making. This paper explores how new forms of risk decision making are emerge over a ten-year period in Brazilian public health surveillance. We identified three phases, wherein calculative risk tools were deployed to support distinct decision making. At each phase, risk-based decisions opened new avenues for governing, but also shed light on the limits of risk for settling controversies in the sector. With this case study, we aim to improve our understanding of the link between risk and decision-making in three ways. First, we discuss how efforts to construct risk-based decision making produce a multi-layered infrastructure, wherein the meanings, uses, and perceived limits of risk are continuously re-contextualized. Second, we trace the emergence of a new object – benefit –which competes for actors’ attention as an alternative to risk-based decision making. Third, we reflect on why risk is not always dominant as a decision-making heuristic, even when it is ostensibly the focus of organizational actors’ everyday work.

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