Sociological Approach I: Risk Society Flashcards
What is Ulrich Beck’s thesis about?
Reflexive modernity - Attitudes towards risk (relationship between the individual/actor and society has changed) as a
way to understand societal transformations (from 1st to 2nd modernity) - Security Risk Management
Why is he writing as he is (motivation/intention behind)?
To raise a debate (pragmatism); reflection of a reality (realism); simply a constructivist debate? We do not know.
According to Beck, what was the 1st modernity about (logic of decision-making)?
Industrialization, producing the production of society, economics as a way of producing goods.
-Risk decisions based on the idea of progress, possibility of control and calculation - belief that you are able to get/understand the future in the present (prediction).
-Object of fear: the definable Other (God, classes, nations).
-Links to the economic understanding of risk and insurance/investment, risk identification to justify contemporary political action.
-Responsibility is a direct consequence of the risks they
run - attached to the ‘decision‘.
-Causality
According to Beck, what was the 2nd modernity about (logic of decision-making)?
New definition of risk - is there a future at all?
- Risk decision is based on what we do not know! Uncertainty about the relationship between past, present, and future - difficult to determine in any temporal sense.
- Globalization: Redefining the spatial boundaries - no longer only tied to specific spatial understanding e.g. nation state.
- We are reflexive about our own production of risk.
- Object of fear: ‘end of the world‘ (catastrophe).
- Several risk are now uncontrollable (catastrophic).
- Responsibility is no longer a legal question when the fault cannot be placed.
- Causality is uncertain/ undecidable; “manufactured uncertainties” as ‘side-effects’; global hazards (link to complex risks and complex risk governance).
What did Beck (1999) call the 2nd modernity?
Risk Society
What belief is abandoned between the 1st and 2nd modernity?
Belief in control. Society’s task is no longer to
produce ’goods’ to avoid ’bads’ (discovery of the uncontrollable risks - catastrophes).
What is Beck’s view on economics vs. politics?
He moves to a space of politics. Prioritation of economics over politics is no longer possible, neo-liberalism has failed.
Common understanding of neo-liberalism:
”Neoliberalism is a market-driven approach to economic and social policy based on neoclassical theories of economics that stresses the efficiency of private enterprise, liberalized trade and relatively open markets, and therefore seeks to maximize the role of the corporate sector in determining the political and economic priorities of the state.” (K.L. Petersen ppt slide 10 - Risk Society 2014).
What is reflexivity in relation to Risk Society?
- Builds on the possibility of self destruction
- Is the recognition of our own role in the production of risks (self-confrontation)
- Is the realization that there is no fixed reality to deal with - everything is a matter assessments and recognizing (uncertainties).
- ”We are living in an age of constructivism” - the way we construct the world has entered us - a way of understanding ourselves in our daily lives that we are able to construct, and do this continuously on a daily basis.
How does this link back to the topic: introduction to risk?
New uncertainties: Risk versus danger
- Risk: something you run; refer back to the decision; related to the possibility of control and thereby calculation.
- Dangers/uncertainties: something you are exposed to; that does not refer back to a certain decision; and are hard to calculate.
- Beck thinks that everything has become uncertain/ dangerous: new kind of risk i.e. manufactured and/or globalised.
How does Risk Society link back to the Economic approaches?
- Ewald: uncertainty, precaution (we need to doubt and be critical - who is deciding what is right and wrong - need for internal auditing process of right/wrong.
- Doyle and Eicson: Precautionary Principle - if not one person can be held responsible, then everyone is responsible.
- Complex risk and governance - transnational/ global effort/ cooperation needed - power politics - public/private divide (corporate risk and security).
What does Beck argue for in his revision of world risk society (2002)?
That we now lack language to talk about risk - we need to re-think risk analysis, make it more transcendent and translucent, more interdisciplinary and transnational cooperative, as risks are no longer simply quantifiable. Research needs to be re-conceptualised and empirically established within framework of cosmopolitan social and political science.
What does Beck (2002) mean by ‘sub-politics’?
Politics outside and beyond the representative institutions of the political system of nation states. Direct politics: ad hoc individual participation in political decisions - shaping politics from bottom up; self organisation of politics that set all areas of society in motion.
How does Beck (2002) see national security?
National security has become transnational cooperation for the nation states, where borders that used to divide national and international have become overthrown. A change to cosmopolitan states, seeking solution to global problems. E.g. Terrorism
How does Ewald (2002) define uncertainty?
Concerning the relationship of causality between an act and its consequences. The reality of injury and the measurement of the risk of such injury.
- 2 logical approaches that have reduced uncertainty to risk in 20th century: insurance and solidarity.
- Moving to the 21st century there are new logics: precaution and prevention that deal with uncertainty and risk.
What are Ewald (2002)’s 3 paradigm shifts?
- Responsibility (19th century): individual fate as result of fault.
- Solidarity (20th century): welfare state, shared result of fault - insurance.
- Precaution (21st century): move from fault to risk, all injury is social. Harder to separate risk, security and uncertainty completely e.g. who is to blame for global warming? - precaution and prevention.
