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On the basis of a voluntary network,
partly supported by
The Geneva
Association,
The Risk Institute was established in order to extend the
studies on the issues of
risk, vulnerability and uncertainties to the broader cultural, economic, social and
political levels of modern society.
The strarting point defining the programme of action was an informal
meeting held in Paris in 1986. Among the participants were Raymond Barre,
Fabio Padoa, Richard Piani, Edward Ploman, Alvin and Heidi Toffler and
Orio Giarini.
A first report, by Orio Giarini and Walter Stahel, was published in 1989,
reprinted in 1991 and revised in 1993, with the title The Limits to
Certainty — Managing Risks in the Modern Service Economy (Kluwer Academic
Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands), with an introduction by Nobel
Laureate Ilya Prigogine. It was also published in French, Italian,
Romanian and Japanese. A fully new German version was published in 2000
with the title
Die
Performance Gesellschaft (Metropolis-Verlag, Marburg).
The book stresses the point that uncertainty is not just simply the result
of inadequate or insufficient information. Every action extending into the
future is by definition uncertain to various degrees. Every ‘perfect
system’(or ideology) is a utopia, often a dangerous one: the total
elimination of uncertainty in human societies implies the elimination of
freedom. Learning and life are about the ability and capacity to cope,
manage, face, contain and take advantage of risk and uncertainty.
In 2002, The Risk Institute published with Economica (Paris) the book
Itinéraire vers la
retraite à 80 ans. Ever since then The Risk Institute has been mainly
concerned with a research programme on social and economic issues deriving
from extending human life expectancy (usually and wrongly defined as the
‘ageing’ society), which is considered the most relevant social phenomenon
of our times. This is particularly relevant in the context of the new
service economy. The Risk Institute has contributed to the organisation of
the conference on “Health,
Ageing and Work” held in Trieste and Duino on 21-23 October 2004.
Since 2005, The Risk Institute publishes
The European Papers on the New Welfare - The Counter Ageing Society -.
From the academic year 2005/2006, Orio
Giarini as Director of the Risk Institute, is giving two courses - in
English - at the
International University Institute for European Studies of the University
of Trieste in Gorizia: one, at PhD level on "Welfare State Policies"
and one for a Master, on "Forecasting Techniques".
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