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.
Followed by a second conference on similar issues, in Turin, October 2007. On this basis, it has taken the initiative to publish from 2005 the EUROPEAN PAPERS ON THE THE NEW WELFARE — The Counter-Ageing Society, in two versions (one in English and one in Italian), both freely available on www.newwelfare.org.
In 2010 the Institute published in Italian “Itinerario senza frontiere: dal Texas allaterza età”. Furthermore it is now editing the CADMUS Papers, journal of the World Academy and Science – WAAS (www.cadmusjournal.org).
Contacts
Director Orio Giarini
via della Torretta 10
34123 Trieste - IT
email: giarini.orio@gmail.com
Rue Le Corbusier 12
1208 Geneva - CH
email: giarini.orio@gmail.com