Preview

Ulrich Beck World Risk Society

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
3869 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Ulrich Beck World Risk Society
Ulrich beck :world risk society

What is "risk society" and how did it emerge?
"Risk society" means that we live in a world out of control. There is nothing certain but uncertainty. But let's go into details. The term "risk" has two radically different meanings. It applies in the first place to a world governed entirely by the laws of probability, in which everything is measurable and calculable. But the word is also commonly used to refer to non-quantitative uncertainties, to "risks that cannot be known." When I speak about "risk society," it is in this latter sense of manufactured uncertainties. These "true" uncertainties, enforced by rapid technological innovations and accelerated societal responses, are creating a fundamentally new global risk landscape. In all these new uncertain risk technologies, we are separated from the possible end results by an ocean of not knowing.
Can you give me an example?
A few years ago, the U.S. Congress gave a scientific commission the task of developing a symbolic language that would make clear the danger posed by the U.S. storage site for atomic waste. The problem to be solved was the following: How should the concepts and symbols be constituted in order to communicate to those living 10,000 years from now? The commission was made up of physicists, anthropologists, linguists, brain researchers, psychologists, molecular biologists, gerontologists, artists, etc. First of all, they had to clear up a simple question: will the U.S.A. exist at all in ten thousand years? The answer was, of course, simple: U.S.A. forever! However the key problem--how it is possible today to begin a conversation 10,000 years into the future--eventually proved to be insoluble. The commission looked for examples from the oldest symbols of humanity, studied the ruins of Stonehenge (1500 B.C.E.) and the pyramids, researched the reception of Homer and the Bible, and heard explanations of the life cycle of documents. These, however, only reached a few

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    For investors, risk comes in many forms. There's the risk of a downturn in stock prices. There's the risk that inflation will erode an asset's purchasing power. There's the risk of political instability affecting international markets, but without risk there is no rewards. Sometimes you have to take a higher risk to get a better reward. They say depending on age should be how much you should be willing to risk.…

    • 408 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    * Risk - The potential that a chosen action or activity will lead to a loss. Investors sometimes choose to put their money in risky investments because these investments offer higher expected returns. The more risk an investment has, the higher will be its expected return.…

    • 618 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Fin 370

    • 461 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Risk is the potential that a chosen action or activity (including the choice of inaction) will lead to a loss (an undesirable outcome).…

    • 461 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fin/370 Week 1 Assignment

    • 636 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Risk is a probability or threat of damage, injury, liability, loss, or any other negative occurrence that is caused by external or internal vulnerabilities, and that may be avoided through preemptive action. The role of risk in finance is the probable ability of an investment to fail.…

    • 636 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    2. What is the cultural perspective of risk? What does Bell mean when he says there has developed a “culture of risk”? How does this correspond with Bell’s discussion of Ulrich Beck’s theory of “risk society”?…

    • 271 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    exam study guide

    • 2559 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Risk is the uncertainty about outcomes (future events) Outcomes may be negative or positive Risk management is a process that (among other things) Identifies Risk Measures Risk Controls Risk Finances Risk Uncertain Outcomes What will happen? When will it happen? Possible vs. Probable Possible that a 55 year old will get breast cancer this year…

    • 2559 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    M1- describe how health and safety legislation, policies and procedures promote the safety of individuals in a health or social care setting.…

    • 369 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Risks are a part of everyday living and each and every job no matter how big or small the organization or company. As petty as it sounds, when waking up in the morning there is a risk of tripping on a shoe or a pair of pants that were taken off the night before. When cooking breakfast there is a risk of burning the bacon, or forgetting to set the alarm before exiting the house. While at work there is a risk of saying something funny but may be deemed inappropriate to a co-worker. Every day individuals come in contact with minor situations that are often over looked until the…

    • 1570 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Best Essays

    Kaplan, S, and Garrick, B. J (2006) say that risk is the notion of uncertainty while there being a likelihood of some kind of loss or damage and that risk is simply the conversion of a hazard into the delivery of a loss of damage. They say risk can be reduced through safeguards and use an example of being out in the ocean, which is a hazard, and instead of crossing it in a rowboat, which would be a high risk; you can cross it in a liner to reduce that risk. According to the Oxford English Dictionary the definition of risk is ‘a situation involving exposure to danger’. Both definitions are similar but Kaplan and Garrick’s is more detailed by explaining that hazards are the source of the risk.…

    • 2276 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Wildavsky, A., and Dake, K. (1990), ‘Theories of risk perception: who fears what and why?’, Daedalus.…

    • 2141 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    I do not disagree nor agree with the court's decision on the Boy Scouts of America vs Dale case, I am on the fence of this case for two reasons. I believe that expelling him from his position as assistant troop leader deprives him of his equal rights and is also considered discrimination based on his sexual orientation. I believe Dales homosexuality isn't disabling anyone from carrying out their duties nor is he pushing his beliefs on or influencing the children in anyway to engage in relations with the same sex . In my opinion, it is unreasonable to kick him out of a position of power based on his sexual preference ; but on the other hand Boy Scouts of America is a private organisation and it does have the right to expression and in this case…

    • 1342 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    moment. In his article “The Mystery of Risk” by Peter Gwin, says, “Some of the motivations for…

    • 771 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Risk is the potential that a chosen action or activity (including the choice of inaction) will lead to a loss (an undesirable outcome). The notion implies that a choice having an influence on the outcome exists (or existed). Potential losses themselves may also be called "risks". Almost any human endeavor carries some risk, but some are much more risky than others.…

    • 1077 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Even though risk taking is so integrated into our lives, we need to learn how to make the unconscious risks we take more conscious. We need to be able to gain control of the risks we come across, so our society does not become out of control. It is just as important to be able to separate reasonable risk from the unreasonable, as it is to remember how risk taking has built our culture and country into what it is today. In our country we have risk that can be useful to us and risk that we love just for entertainment. People need to be able to separate the risk that our Founding Fathers took and the risky stunts that the Jackass cast partakes in. We must savor risk until we are sure of value that can be gained from…

    • 2584 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Risk is when there is a hazard or chance of loss. In the book The Midwife of Venice by Roberta Rich, Isaac and Hannah are forced to take risks for the ones they love. The situations Isaac and Hannah are faced with, concerning their loved ones, pressures them to take risks.…

    • 1086 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays