Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity"Ulrich Beck's panoramic analysis of the condition of Western societies has already been hailed as a classic. This first English edition will take its place as a core text of contemporary sociology alongside earlier typifications of society as postindustrial, and current debates about the social dimensions of the postmodern. Western industrial society is widely seen to be going through a decisive transitional period into a form defined variously as 'post-Enlightenment', 'post-Fordist' or 'postmodern'. Arguing that we are instead facing a different modernity typified by reflexivity, Ulrich Beck goes beyond these descriptions to provide a coherent picture of the direction of global social change. Underpinning the analysis is the notion of the 'risk society'. The changing nature of society's relation to production and distribution is related to the environmental impact, as a totalizing, globalizing economy based on scientific and technical knowledge becomes more central to social organization and social conflict. Within this framework, Ulrich Beck develops an overview of other key elements of current social development: the centrality of the political economy of knowledge; the changing roles of class and gender in a new work environment; and the politics (both personal and public) of the risk society. This major analysis of the present and future of modernity will be essential reading for students and scholars in sociology and general social theory." -- |
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action arguments become biography causal central chemical civilization claims class society conflicts conscience collective consciousness consequences contradictions criticism critique cultural danger decision-making decisions demands democracy democratic dependent differentiation economic environmental existence experience external fallibilism feudal forms gender global groups growing hand hazards historical human increase individual industrial society institutional institutionally knowledge labor market legitimation living longer marriage mass media Max Weber means ment mobility modernization risks nature norms nuclear family objective constraints opportunities organization organizational plants political system pollutants possible practice problems production productive forces professional progress protection public sphere question reality reflexive modernization relations relationships remains risk positions risk society role scientific rationality scientists sense side effects situations social classes structure sub-politics systematically techno-economic techno-scientific theoretical theory threatens threats tion tional toxic toxins traditional transformation Ulrich Beck underemployment vitro fertilization wage labor welfare women
Popular passages
Page 13 - The gain in power from techno-economic 'progress' is being increasingly overshadowed by the production of risks. In an early stage, these can be legitimated as 'latent side effects'. As they become globalized, and subject to public criticism and scientific investigation, they come, so to speak, out of the closet and achieve a central importance in social and political debates. This 'logic...