Engaging communities of practice for risk communication in the Hawkesbury Water Recycling Scheme

Participation by the community of people likely to be involved in, or affected by, project activities has long been recognised as important, particularly regarding questions of assessing risks and potential impacts. While the term 'community' is often used in broad rhetorical terms this has tried to be overcome through recourse to the notion of 'stakeholders', and more recently towards defining communities in terms of their networks of activities and practices. This has led to a growing interest from broad ranging domains of inquiry for 'communities of practice' as an appropriate unit of analysis. This paper presents reflections on work in progress where communities of practice involved in the Hawkesbury Water Recycling Scheme are being engaged in a practical study focusing on risk communication and management. Differences in risks perceived by different communities of practice are represented by simple feedback diagrams that incorporate actions and information strategies to inform and manage the risks perceived. A discussion is presented in terms of first, second and third person perspectives on this application as action research.