Risk communication, phenomenology, and the limits of representation

Despite movements towards more dialogic and rhetorical models, the field of risk communication remains rooted in foundational commitments regarding ontology, epistemology, authority and practice. In prevailing views of risk communication, risk is the primary phenomenon and communication is a secondary and subordinate process. Applying Heidegger's phenomenological critique of the modern world picture, phenonenologically-grounded communication theory, and Luhmann's model of autopoietic social systems, this essay proposes an alternative view in which communication constitutes, rather than represents, risks and explores the implications of such a view.