Paper – Cosmopolitanism and Environmental Health

Gaston Meskens Centre for Ethics and Value Inquiry, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, University of Ghent, Belgium Structure Intro   Cosmopolitanism and environmental health 1.        The fact of complexity of environmental health governance. 2.        The fate and rescue of cosmopolitanism. 3.        Cosmopolitanism as an ethics of reflexivity ‘bound in complexity’.

Paper “The Politics of Hypothesis – an inquiry into the ethics of scientific assessment”

Many scientific hypotheses are nowadays granted with a social, political or commercial function. They are prematurely released from the laboratory, without full support from empirical evidence, but with a specific task: to warn the world about dangerous situations or evolutions, or to inform it about promising trends and capacities. And,

The Politics of Hypothesis – on the need for reflexivity at the science-policy interface.

This presentation is a contribution to the 18th Global Development Conference “Science, Technology and Innovation for Development”, 22 – 23 March 2018, New Delhi, India. The presentation will soon be available here.  

Publication ‘Ethics of Environmental Health’

Ethics of Environmental Health – Edited by Friedo Zölzer and Gaston Meskens © 2017 – Routledge Introduction Environmental health encompasses the assessment and control of those environmental factors that can potentially affect human health, such as radiation, toxic chemicals and other hazardous agents. It is often assumed that the assessment

Paper – Better Living (in a Complex World): An Ethics of Care for our Modern Co-Existence

Abstract What do we mean when we say we live in a complex world? This paper characterises problems such as combating climate change, the provision of affordable access to healthy food for all, or evaluation of the possible use of nuclear energy as ‘complex social problems’ of which the complexity

Paper – Beyond Paternalism and Strategy: Understanding Radiological Risks as a Mutual Learning Experience

This working paper is an output of the Fukushima Global Communication research workshop “Understanding and Communicating Risks Post Fukushima”, held in Tokyo on 12–13 November 2015. The workshop brought together international experts to explore the specific challenges of understanding and discussing risks related to nuclear accidents, and identify appropriate and

Statement on post-accident social justice in Fukushima

This statement was my contribution to the Public Seminar ‘Understanding and communicating risks post-Fukushima’ at the United Nations University in Tokyo on Friday 13 November 2015   Risk communication with respect to the current environmental radiation conditions in Fukushima has to take into account that there are scientific discussions going

Statement of the Research and Independent Non-governmental Organisations at the Paris Pre-COP meeting

On Sunday 8 November 2015, I delivered a statement on behalf of the Research and Independent Non-governmental Organisations to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The statement is a joint piece of work done by the RINGO steering committee. The meeting was organised by the French COP21

Global governance as ethical commitment – A new vision on solidarity for sustainable development

The missing goal: a new global governance for sustainable development One of the results of the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, as presented in the outcome document entitled The Future We Want, was a mandate for the UN to establish an open working group to develop a set

A Dialogue on Foundational Values and Principles for the Sustainable Development Goals, UN DPI/NGO Conference, United Nations, New York

A dialogue on foundational values and principles for the sustainable development goals: learning from the peoples sustainability treaties. This workshop is organised as part of the 65th Annual UN DPI/NGO Conference taking place at the United Nations Headquarters, New York. Scope The workshop will be organised as a dialogue on

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