Paper that has two distinct but related aims. First, it seeks to draw attention to what seems a neglected set of questions in an otherwise familiar debate about risk and regulation. In short, it argues that thinking about regulation, at least as it applies to public policy, is too often framed as a simple choice between risk and regulation, with little thought given to non-regulatory ways of managing risk.
At the same time, this paper also seeks to understand the potential in managing a particular set of risks – the risks associated with the Big Society – in a more bottom-up, participatory way.