Using stakeholders’ expertise in EMF and soil contamination to improve the management of public policies dealing with modern risk: when uncertainty is on the agenda

In Western societies, public decision-making processes have to deal with both industrial and modern risks. Industrial risks are managed by the traditional public decision-making process (DMP) based on strong scientific knowledge foundations and trusted institutions. Management of modern risks has to fit within the same institutional settings, even though those risks should be replaced in another political framework because of their specific features (spatio-temporal scale, great scientific uncertainty, invisibility…). We propose two case studies from Belgium, one on soil contamination and one on electromagnetic fields in relation to antennas siting issues, that will help identify and discuss what are the variables that have to be taken into account in order to design new ways of dealing with such modern risks, fostering efficient management and social acceptance. What is at stake is the development of new methodologies for the actors in the policy networks to agree with some appraisal framework.