I
recently
discussed
my
book, Navigating
Uncertainty:
Radical
Rethinking
for
a
Turbulent
World, now
a
year
old,
with the
New
Books
Network
podcast.
The
host
was Morteza
Hajizadeh who
asked
a
set
of
great
questions
over
an
extended
discussion.
We
discussed
many
of
the
chapters,
including
the
how
bankers
can
learn
from
livestock
traders
in
Africa;
how
lessons
from
local
responses
to
the
COVID-19
pandemic
can
inform
us
about
preparing
for
disasters;
how
risk
models
can
potentially
undermine
how
we
respond
to
uncertain
conditions;
how
technology
regulation
needs
to
take
into
account
how
people
understand
innovations;
how
reliability
professionals
and
their
networks
are
important
in
responding
to
crises
and
disasters;
and
how
to
connect
lived
experiences
of
living
with
uncertainty
with
climate
policies.
It’s
always
interesting
having
a
discussion
on
the
book
with
someone
from
a
completely
different
field.
Morteza
is
interested
in
critical
theory
and
cultural
studies
having
completed
his
PhD
in
English
Literature,
working
on
environmental
history
and
British
gothic
novels.
He
usefully
identified
some
of
the
key
big
themes
that
cut
across
the
book.
As
well
as
the
specific
themes,
we
therefore
also
dwelt
on
the
wider
challenges
of
rethinking
ideas
of
modernity
and
progress
and
particularly
the
importance
of
moving
from
a
risk
to
an
uncertainty
paradigm,
and
so
from
a
focus
on
control
to
one
of
care.
We
concluded
with
a
discussion
on
ways
of
rethinking
public
policy.
Morteza
asked,
how
can
embracing
uncertainty
become
a
source
of
creativity
and
transformation
in
public
policy?
To
paraphrase
my
response,
I
argued
that:
By
avoiding
the
political,
institutional,
professional
drives
to
close
down
to
risk,
spaces
can
be
opened
up
where
uncertainties
can
be
addressed.
Uncertainty
requires
creative
real-time
responses,
as
we
have
seen
with
high
reliability
professionals.
Uncertainties
require
deliberation
and
debate
amongst
diverse
knowledges
in
order
to
address
unknown
futures.
Uncertainties
can
open
spaces
for
a
more
democratic,
inclusive
approach
that
rather
than
offering
a
top-down
technocratic
solutions
offers
the
opportunity
for
more
transformation
change….
There
are
dangers
of
course.
Uncertainties
can
incapacitate,
create
anxiety
and
demotivate.
Those
who
are
powerful
–
along
with
the
populist
campaigns
of
misinformation
–
can
capture
such
spaces
where
uncertainties
are
being
deliberated
upon.
But
open
debate,
wide
involvement
and
a
commitment
to
democratic
knowledge
building
can
resist
such
tendencies,
with
uncertainty
being
a
liberatory
force.
This
is
what
I
mean
by
a
politics
of
uncertainty,
centred
on
care,
not
control.
Do
listen
to
the
podcast
and
buy
or
download
the
book
(it’s
open
access),
and
please
let
me
know
what
you
think!
Post
published
in:
Agriculture