Beheer van risico's en veiligheid

The aim of the minor Companies and Value-Sensitive Innovation is to teach students a comprehensive and practical understanding of the innovation process and its ethical dimensions. Management of risk and safety is one of the crucial aspects in order to create ethically sound and economically viable innovations. In this course, you will learn risk management concepts, and you will learn to think in terms of safety- and security-related incident scenarios: what are the causes of unwanted events with regard to safety and security of innovations? And what are possible unwanted consequences? Prevention of these unwanted events, as well as recovery and mitigation if an unwanted event does occur, takes up a central role in the course.

In the course we will look into safety and security risks at different phases of an innovation, being the development phase, the production phase, and the deployment phase (when the innovation is introduced into society). You will learn to identify these risks, analyse them, and formulate recommendations to manage safety and security risks throughout all phases of the innovation process.

When looking into risks emerging from technologies, the observable risks are important to take into account, as well as the perceived risks (opinions and perceptions of different stakeholders). You will learn to analyse the possible societal impact of safety and security risks emerging from innovations, as well as the relations and tensions between safety and security risks and other values such as privacy, transparency, and inclusion.

In the course, we will look into the roles and responsibilities of relevant stakeholders - such as designers and users of innovations - regarding managing safety and security risks.