Science, risk and governance: radical rhetorics and the realities of reform in food safety governance

An historical framework for the analysis of the role of science in public policy is outlined and then applied to analyse a series of institutional reforms that have emerged in 8 separate institutional settings, using as examples the ways in which risks to public health and environmental conditions from food and agriculture are assessed and managed. The discussion explores the extent to which patterns of reform that have been consequent on food safety scares in the late 1990s and early years of this decade have matched the rhetorics in terms of which they were justified, and solved the problems of legitimation that they had highlighted. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.