From the Taming of Chance to the Rhetoric of Uncertainty

Photo: Marit Hommedal/Holberg Prize

Professor Bruna de Marchi, ISIG Institute of International Sociology of Gorizia (Gorizia, Italy)

Professor De Marchi studied political science and sociology in Italy and the US . She is presently based in Milan, Italy, and works as a private consultant. For many years she was the head of the Mass Emergencies Programme at the Institute of International Sociology in Gorizia, Italy, which she contributed to establish in the late 1970s. She also worked as a seconded national expert at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. She has been a consultant to governmental and international agencies and private companies, including the WHO , the EC, the Italian Department of Civil Protection and the Italian National Seismic Service. She has been principal investigator in many international research projects. She has served in several committees, including the EC High Level Expert Group for Mobilising the Potential for Regional Foresight for an Enlarged European Union and the EC 6th Framework Research Programme Advisory Group on Science and Society. Her main research interests are in the social dimensions of environmental change, public participation in science for policy, human systems’ response to disasters, risk perception, communication and governance.