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IEEP - Institute for European Environmental Policy - Home. Home | Environmental Research Foundation. Greenpeace International. WWF. Malcolm Sparrow on Controlling Risk. Interviewed by Doug Gavel on May 1, 2008 Controlling risks, or harms, is a central challenge for government regulators charged with the task of reducing societal ills and preventing bad things from happening. Understanding and unraveling the chain of components that comprise risk is the focus of Malcolm Sparrow’s current research. Sparrow is professor of the practice of public management and author of “The Character of Harms: Operational Challenges in Control.” Q: In your research you advocate the systematic disaggregating of broad generalities of risk into specific well-defined problems so that smaller-scale specific interventions can be attempted.

Please elaborate. Sparrow: A lot of my past research has focused on regulatory practice. Many agencies of social regulation exist basically to control some class of harms or risks to society. What is this new emerging practice about? I described the adult approach. Q: “Catastrophic risk” is a very important subject these days.

Managing Regulation, Enforcement and Compliance.