2016 SRA-ANZ Annual meeting in Adelaide Australia: Engaging Risk
From November 22 to 25, SRA-ANZ members and risk aficionados were “Engaging Risk” at the 2016 annual meeting at Central Queensland University’s Appleton Institute in Adelaide, Australia.  
Prior to the conference Anca Hanea ran a workshop exploring some of the ways to quantify uncertainty when using expert opinion. The day concluded with welcome drinks and the launch of Robert Sams’ book, Social Sensemaking. The event provided an opportunity for members to discuss their research and ideas while enjoying some very nice Australian and New Zealand wine.
Our first keynote speaker, David Swain, asked us to consider the growing social divide between farmers and consumers and the role this is playing in the maintenance of food security. We then moved onto a series of talks in the area of environmental risk, covering issues associated with the regulation of GM modified plants, governance and public engagement and confirmation bias in conservation decision-making. After a short break for lunch we were back with a focus on disease.

Imagining risk in an era of rapid social and environmental change

Professor Stewart Lockie
Director, The Cairns Institute
James Cook University

As a calculus of probability and harm, risk has been as important an idea as any to the configuration of the industrial age. Techniques for risk calculation and management have facilitated market growth and the deployment of novel technologies on hitherto unimagined scales – with numerous benefits for human health and wellbeing. Yet risk remains controversial. From global environmental change to financial and food systems crises there is no shortage of evidence conventional approaches to risk are not sufficient, by themselves, to control the negative side-effects of industrialization. Nor, of course, can we expect them to be – accountability for societal welfare being in no way restricted to risk assessment professions and institutions. Nonetheless, the scale and pace of anthropogenically induced environmental change require of the risk professions a re-imagination of risk oriented towards avoiding the twin threats of: (1) failures of imagination; and (2) failures of coordination. This paper will explore the implications of emerging social and environmental issues at a variety of scales and the unique challenges these raise both for foresight (understanding of what is possible) and for deliberation (shared understanding of what is acceptable and desirable).

Biography
Stewart Lockie is Professor of Sociology and Director of The Cairns Institute at James Cook University, Australia. Prof Lockie is also a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, Foundation Editor of the journal Environmental Sociology, and immediate Past-President of the International Sociological Association's Research Committee on Environment and Society. He is an environmental sociologist whose research addresses environmental governance and risk in a variety of contexts including climate change, biodiversity conservation, agriculture and food security, the greening of consumption practices, and the social impacts of resource development. Prof Lockie is committed to working across disciplinary boundaries and across the science/policy/layperson divide. He is equally committed to lifting research capacity and impact among the social sciences and humanities in the South Pacific and across the broader tropical region.

The wait is over - conference registration for the SRA-ANZ 2016 conference is now open!

The conference will be an action packed two days of presentations following the keynote speech from Professor Stewart Lockie and an official welcome by Professor Scott Bowman, Vice-Chancellor and President of Central Queensland University. This will be followed by two days of professional workshops on risk perception and risk analysis that will wrap things up.

Earlybird registrations will be open until 30 September 2016 and allow us to offer a very attractive fee for SRA-ANZ members of $180.00 AUD.

Get in quick for that rate. Once earlybird closes registrations costs will rise to $220.00 AUD for members.

The rate for attending the workshops is $100.00 AUD. We also have a special discount for student who can attend the conference for $100.00 AUD.