"Risk of Society: On the way to another modernity" by Ulrich Beck.

Five Theses of modernisation and risk

Introduction.

Contemporary processes of modernisation are reflexive, and quite different to the initial and incomplete modernisation that gave rise to industrial society. Beck depicts two phases to the modernisation of industrial society - one is characterised by it’s reliance upon traditional components for functioning; the second is the actual transition to a new societal type, characterised with three aspects. These are

(1) the "civilization volcano"

Where the advanced technology of society is potentially highly destructive.

(2) the "individualisation of social inequality"

Blurred class contrasts and the increased importance of "individual market projectories".

(3) the "unbounding" of science and politics

Constituting a new relationship between scientific and politics.

His second book questions the reliance on expertise, and thus the fact value distinction of science and technology.

Initially, Beck challenges the usage of the term "post" -as somewhat of a ‘cop-out’ and an intellectual laziness. His object is to "take up the social theoretical thread again" and give meaning to the current vacancy of "post".

Inextricable from the production of wealth (and it’s problems) are the problems and conflicts which arise from the "production, definition and distribution of scientifically and technically produced risks".

[ there is also scope for sociologically/politically engineered risks -eg the formation of ghettos. ]

The transition from the logic of distribution of wealth to the logic of distribution of risks is rooted in at least two historical factors:

1. Real material need’s objective reduction through productive forces and social/legal protections/regulations

2. Dependence upon the release of risks and threats. They will be generated along with society’s "development" (as used in, for example, Wolfgang Sach’s ("The Development Dictionary") most derogatory sense of the word).

Beck’s egs: harmful/poisonous substances in foodstuffs, air and water, atomic weapons and energy, genetic engineering.

[Other egs: those that aren’t deemed as obviously or consensually an overall threat: eg harmful/poisonous pharmaceuticals / vaccinations, harmful appliances or infrastructure (EMF/EMP), harmful entrenched mysogynistic artefacts and practices eg gynocologists stirrups (esp. psychological harm), accepted operations such as tonsillectomies (links to infectious disease), sociological/environmental stressors and pressures (which may also lead to a less than fully comprehended risk in alcohol/drug use), etc. etc.]

* The old paradigm of the industrial / class society, is of how wealth is to be distributed unevenly but legitimately.

* The "new paradigm of the risk society" is how risks can be "prevented, made harmless, dramatized and directed, channelled away."

If the risks have obviously manifested, how can they be delimited and distributed so that they

1. do not hinder the process of modernisation

2. do not overstep the bounds of the ecologically/medically/psychologically/socially acceptable

We live in the period of transition. The problems of wealth & risk distribution overlap each other. The conflict and problems of this "advanced modern period" cannot be understood in either distribution of wealth or distribution of risk frameworks, when taken individually. Beck situates these frameworks temporally so that we can no longer understand in terms of wealth distribution, but we can not yet understand in terms of risk distribution.

The logic of the definition and distribution of risks can be explained in terms of ideal types in these areas:

* the labour market and system of production (microelectronics, flexibility of working times, forms of under-utilisation of labour, decentralised salaried employment)

* freeing up of traditional and institutional forms of control of fear and insecurity in the family, marriage, sexual roles, class consciousness

* the demystification of scientific rationality ("disenchantment of the disenchanter"), technological risks, criticism of progress

* (Beck’s main thesis) the risks and consequences of modernisation, which are realised in the irreversible dangering of life. The risks are supra-national and not class specific.