CONVERGENCE AND DIVERGENCE ABOUT THE INTERPRETATION OF RISK: THE CASE OF THE UHE ITAIPU BINACIONAL

Abstract

In our society, risks and threats reach high coverage levels, as well as unheard scope, through the combination of different risks. To face this situation, it has been developed a security culture, which is characterized by the belief on technical rationality. This culture presents the expert systems as regulating actors, who receive confidence from most of society, and also shows authority in institutional speeches. The construction of dams implies a social risk, represented by “Itaipu Binacional Powerplant”. Some variables of risk of dam collapse were analyzed,, including: ecosystem variables; variables related to critical climatic events; and, at least, variables related to terrorism. From a state-of-art overview on social and human sciences discussion, the similarities, differences and conflicts among “Itaipu Binacional Powerplant” security speech and public authorities’ speeches were analyzed, considering representations of social groups installed in the plant downstream. The results indicate the existence of considerable divergences in the interior of the many involved technical visions and of these with the vision of the local residents. It concludes pointing the limits of the current safety culture.