Risk society

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Risk society is the manner in which modern society organizes in response to risk. The term is
closely associated with several key writers on modernity, in particular Ulrich Beck and Anthony
Giddens. The term was coined in the 1980s and its popularity during the 1990s was both as a
[1]

consequence of its links to trends in thinking about wider modernity, and also to its links to popular
discourse, in particular the growing environmental concerns during the period. [2]

Contents
[hide]

1Definition

2Background

o 2.1Modernity and realism in science

3Implications

o 3.1Environmental risks

4Notes

5References

6External links

Definition[edit]
According to British sociologist Anthony Giddens, a risk society is "a society increasingly
preoccupied with the future (and also with safety), which generates the notion of risk," whilst the [3]

German sociologist Ulrich Beck defines it as "a systematic way of dealing with hazards and
insecurities induced and introduced by modernisation itself (Beck 1992:21)". [1]

Beck (1992:50) defined modernization as,

[1]

"surges of technological rationalization and changes in work and organization, but beyond that includes much more: the change in societal
characteristics and normal biographies, changes in lifestyle and forms of love, change in the structures of power and influence, in the forms of political
repression and participation, in views of reality and in the norms of knowledge. In social science's understanding of modernity, the plough, the steam
locomotive and the microchip are visible indicators of a much deeper process, which comprises and reshapes the entire social structure."

Background[edit]
Modernity and realism in science[edit]
Beck and Giddens both approach the risk society firmly from the perspective of modernity, "a
shorthand term for modern society or industrial civilization... modernity is vastly more dynamic than
any previous type of social order. It is a society... which unlike any preceding culture lives in the
future rather than the past." (Anthony Giddens) They also draw heavily on the concept of reflexivity,
[4]

the idea that as a society examines itself, it in turn changes itself in the process. In classical
industrial society, the modernist view is based on assumption of realism in science creating a system
in which scientists work in an exclusive, inaccessible environment.

Implications[edit]
Environmental risks[edit]
In 1986, right after the Chernobyl disaster, Ulrich Beck, a sociology professor at the University of
Munich, published the original German text, Risikogesellschaft, of his highly influential and catalytic
work (Suhrkamp, Frankfurt 1986). Risikogesellschaft was published in English as Risk Society:
Towards a New Modernity in 1992. The ecological crisis is central to this social analysis of the
contemporary period. Beck argued that environmental risks had become the predominant product,
not just an unpleasant, manageable side-effect, of industrial society.
Giddens and Beck argued that whilst humans have always been subjected to a level of risk - such
as natural disasters - these have usually been perceived as produced by non-human forces. Modern
societies, however, are exposed to risks such as pollution, newly discovered illnesses, crime, that
are the result of the modernization process itself. Giddens defines these two types of risks
as external risks and manufactured risks. Manufactured risks are marked by a high level of human
[5]

agency involved in both producing, and mitigating such risks.

As manufactured risks are the product of human activity, authors like Giddens and Beck argue that it
is possible for societies to assess the level of risk that is being produced, or that is about to be
produced. This sort of reflexive introspection can in turn alter the planned activities themselves. As
an example, disasters such as Chernobyl and the Love Canal Crisis, public faith in the modern
project has declined leaving public distrust in industry, government and experts. [6]

Social concerns led to increased regulation of the nuclear power industry and to the abandonment of
some expansion plans, altering the course of modernization itself. This increased critique of modern
industrial practices is said to have resulted in a state of reflexive modernization, illustrated by
concepts such as sustainability and the precautionary principle that focus on preventative measures
to decrease levels of risk.
There are differing opinions as to how the concept of a risk society interacts with social hierarchies
and class distinctions. Most agree that social relations have altered with the introduction of
[7]

manufactured risks and reflexive modernization. Risks, much like wealth, are distributed unevenly in
a population and will influence quality of life.
Beck has argued that older forms of class structure - based mainly on the accumulation of wealth -
atrophy in a modern, risk society, in which people occupy social risk positions that are achieved
through risk aversion. "In some of their dimensions these follow the inequalities of class and strata
positions, but they bring a fundamentally different distribution logic into play". Beck contends that
[8]

widespread risks contain a 'boomerang effect', in that individuals producing risks will also be
exposed to them. This argument suggests that wealthy individuals whose capital is largely
responsible for creating pollution will also have to suffer when, for example, the contaminants seep
into the water supply. This argument may seem oversimplified, as wealthy people may have the
ability to mitigate risk more easily by, for example, buying bottled water. Beck, however, has argued
that the distribution of this sort of risk is the result of knowledge, rather than wealth. Whilst the
wealthy person may have access to resources that enable him or her to avert risk, this would not
even be an option were the person unaware that the risk even existed.
By contrast, Giddens has argued that older forms of class structure maintain a somewhat stronger
role in a risk society, now being partly defined "in terms of differential access to forms of self-
actualization and empowerment". Giddens has also tended to approach the concept of a risk
[9]

society more positively than Beck, suggesting that there "can be no question of merely taking a
negative attitude towards risk. Risk needs to be disciplined, but active risk-taking is a core element
of a dynamic economy and an innovative society." [10]
Ulrich Beck

Biography
Showing all 5 items

Jump to: Overview (2) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (1) | Trivia (1)

Overview (2)

Date of 15 May 1944, Stolp, Pomerania, Germany [now

Birth Slupsk, Pomorskie, Poland]

Date of 1 January 2015, Munich, Bavaria,

Death Germany (heart attack)

Mini Bio (1)

Ulrich Beck was born on May 15, 1944 in Stolp, Pomerania, Germany. He was an actor and producer, known for Der
Schmied seines Glcks (1965), The 42nd Heaven (1962) and Eiger (1974). He was married to Elisabeth Gernsheim. He
died on January 1, 2015 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany.

Spouse (1)

Elisabeth Gernsheim (1975 - 1 January 2015) (his death)

Trivia (1)
University professor of sociology, he invented the term 'risk society' and was author of many books and editor since 1980
of 'Soziale Welt' journal.
Ulrich Beck's Profile
Brief about Ulrich Beck: By info that we know Ulrich Beck was born at 1944-05-15. And also Ulrich Beck is German Sociologist.
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Some Ulrich Beck's quotes. Goto "Ulrich Beck's quotation" section for more.
We do not yet have the solutions to these questions, but the awareness that we live in an endangered world is present in
more and more life situations.

Tags: Life, Present, Questions

When they come to Europe, they are confronted by still closed borders. Thus, the concept of open borders is a very
selective concept, one that is not taken seriously at all in the experience of non-Europeans.

Tags: Experience, Open, Seriously

You need education. You need subsistence protection. We need jobs and social security. These are preconditions under which
it will perhaps be possible to deal with these complex circumstances.

Tags: Education, Possible, Social

All theory of modernity in sociology suggests that the more modernity there is, the less religion. In my theory we can realize
that this is wrong: atheism is only one belief system among many.

Tags: Less, Religion, Wrong

And it also became clear that these conditions of inequality and historical injustice have given rise to a feeling of hate in the
world - a deeply felt hate that cannot easily be overcome with a few good words.

Tags: Feeling, Good, Hate

I forced myself to think what is the new concept and it became clear to me that it was risk, not only in technology and
ecology, but in life and employment, too.

Tags: Life, Risk, Technology

Western countries in particular can today no longer be separated from Muslim societies, because they have them within
themselves. They are themselves internally globalized.

Tags: Themselves, Today, Within

And the terror itself is an example of the world's uncontrollability.

Tags: Example, Terror

Europe itself is an embodiment of this diversity.

Tags: Diversity, Embodiment, Europe

Global conditions are far too complex to be able to imagine that they could ever be really controlled by one power.
Tags: Able, Far, Power

In the final analysis, terror is also another proof of the fact that the superpower is not really a superpower. It was
vulnerable.

Tags: Another, Fact, Final

Initially, the horrific images of September 11th triggered an enormous wave of solidarity.

Tags: Images, September, Wave

Relinquishing apparent national sovereignty does not have to entail a loss of national sovereignty, but can actually be a
benefit.

Tags: Actually, Loss, National

The basic assumption of the secular society is that modernity overcomes religion.

Tags: Basic, Religion, Society

We are living in a world that is beyond controllability.

Tags: Beyond, Living

You cannot make peace with terrorists. The normal dividing lines between war and peace do not apply.

Tags: Cannot, Peace, War

You could say that we are living in an internally globalized country.

Tags: Country, Living

Accordingly, globalization is not only something that will concern and threaten us in the future, but something that is taking
place in the present and to which we must first open our eyes.

Tags: Eyes, Future, Place

And therefore we must seek dialogue in this networked world. We must ask which voice was actually attempting to make
itself heard and saw no other possibility of gaining a hearing. To that extent, for a while this also represented a forced
opening of a cosmopolitan view.

Tags: Actually, Ask, While

But it then very soon became clear that the response of a war against terrorism, initially conceived of in a metaphorical
sense, began to be taken increasingly seriously and came to entail waging a real war.

Tags: Real, Sense, War