Acceptable Risk?
Making Decisions in a Toxic Environment

Organizations and modern technology give us much of what we value, but they have also given us Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Bhopal. The question at the heart of this paradox is "What is acceptable risk?" Based on his examination of the 1981 contamination of an office building in Binghamton, New York, Lee Clarke's compelling study argues that organizational processes are the key to understanding how some risks rather than others are defined as acceptable. He finds a pattern of decision-making based on relationships among organizations rather than the authority of individuals or single agencies.

Creating Risks Organizational Chaos" Beginning Decontamination and Medical Surveillance Constricting the Field of Organizations As Excursus on Resolving Organizational Dilemmas: The County Government's Risk Organizing Medical Surveillance Organizing Decontamination The Exposed Organizing Risk Appendix A: The Players Appendix B: A Methodological Accounting References List of Interviews