Riscos alimentares: novos desafios para a sociologia ambiental e a teoria social

In this article. I analyze the alternatives proposed by the constructivist environmental sociology and by recent social theories (estrutucturation, global risk society and actor-network) to the problem of how to deal with risks of serious consequences, as the food risks (BSE and GMOs). One of the issues that is common in this bibliography is the criticism in relation to the technical and quantitative analysis of environmental and technological risks, dominant at the international level in the accepted definition, evaluation and control of risks. These analysis are seen as ignoring that both the causes and the magnitude of the consequenees are mediated by social experiences and interactions, and also not considering the existence of different rationalities influencing risk perception. This idea rise the question of how to involve lay people in debates that have been monopolized by experts. In the suggestions presented and discuss in this article, some problems are identified (idealization of lay knowledge as more appropriate than the expert one, generalization from the European context, etc.). Finally, the contribution of recent publications on the actor-network theory, closer to environmental sociology, is positively evaluated in their formulation of more operational criteria to answer to the challenges rose by food risks.