Sociological approaches I: Risk Society

Question 1

What is Beck’s world risk society about?

2002

Answer 1

Not that the world becomes more dangerous, but rather that the de-bounding of uncontrollable risks disappear. This de-bounding is three-dimensional: spacial, temporal and social

Question 2

Which characteristics does uncontrollable risks have?

Answer 2

Cannot be link to someone responsible, a specific place and cannot be controlled by a single nation-state

Question 3

What consequence does the rise of uncontrollable risks have?

Answer 3

That the limits for personal insurance disappear

Question 4

Which three axis of conflicts do Beck see in WRS?

Answer 4

Ecological conflicts (global)
Global financial conflicts (can in the beginning be both individual and national)
Global terror networks (which empower states and governments)

Question 5

What does the new terror threats entail?

Answer 5

Since terror is intentional, we move from active trust to active mistrust, and a (partly) move from private insurance to state insurance

Question 6

What does Beck mean by mutual empowerment?

Answer 6

Governments empower themselves by defining their enemies, but at the same time empower the terrorists by recognizing them.

Question 7

What is the relationship between the three types of threats?

Answer 7

Ecological and financial risks can now be unleashed intentionally by terrorists

Question 8

What have we learned about national security after 9/11 a.t. Beck?

Answer 8

It is no longer about national security, since everything happens through transnational cooperation. Nation state is more or less dead, since no nation state can secure itself

Question 9

What is cosmopolitan sovereignty?

Answer 9

By reducing ones autonomy (through cooperation) the sovereignty can be increased

Question 10

How can WRS be saved from itself a.t. Beck?

Answer 10

By separating nation and state as state and church were formerly separated.
Social sciences must be reestablished as a transnational science, since the distinction between national/international and domestic/foreign are self-affirming prophecies

Question 11

What paradigm shift happened from 19th to 20th century?

Answer 11

In the 19th it was about responsibility, in the 20th about solidarity. The 21st has not found is name yet

Question 12

What was the responsibility paradigm about a.b. Ewald?

2002

Answer 12

Responsibility was about that one person cannot transfer his problems to another, thus security is not a right but a duty. Ones problems (faults) is a sanction for what one should have foreseen.

Question 13

What is the solidarity paradigm about a.t. Ewald?

Answer 13

There is a shift towards risk; action that harm are no longer faults but accidents, and in the industrial society the question is who should bear the burden of those harms. Becomes the firms when dealing with work related risks. However it also deals with prevention, as humans are part of technical systems where faults are seen as organizational faults. (partly also the safety paradigm)

Question 14

How does Ewald see risks?

Answer 14

As social - risks institute a social constract between individuals. They are a necessary evil of development, and the question is therefore who must bear the loss

Question 15

What is the relationship between risk and responsibility?

Answer 15

The one who must bear the loss, is the one deemed responsible. Problem when it is the one hurt, who might not be responsible, but bear the loss anyway

Question 16

What level do Ewald talk about, that risks are distributed at?

Answer 16

Holistic; in order to see society and courts as distributing responsibility for risks, one has to look at society as a whole instead of individuals

Question 17

What is the main issues for safety a.t. Ewald?

Answer 17

medical accidents, global threats to the environment and products liability of manufacturers (innovation risk)

Question 18

When did the precautionary principle develop?

Answer 18

In the 1980s (second part of the solidarity paradigm). Was a surprise to people in developed countries?

Question 19

What is the precautionary principle about a.t. Ewald?

Answer 19

We went from talking about accidents to disasters due to focus on human agency. Seems to only be usable in context with scientific uncertainty. The principle looks at collective catastrophes

Question 20

How do Ewald argue that responsibility has returned alongside solidarity?

Answer 20

We no longer accept that risks are okay as long as they are repairable and get compensation (which assumes that everything have a price) - we wont someone to be criminally liable as well.

Question 21

What is the precautionary hypothesis?

Answer 21

What is the worst that can happen?

Question 22

How is there a different approach to uncertainty?

Answer 22

Formerly it was an excuse for not knowing - now it is a reason to know more

Question 23

What is precaution about in the risk society a.t. Ewald?

Answer 23

To prevent certain risks from being taken. Precaution however gives the danger, that it might result in inaction.

Question 24

How does Beck distinguish between first and second modernity?

Answer 24

First = based on nation states where different relationships is understood in a territorial sense
Second = globalization, individualization, global risks, gender revolution and unemployment

Question 25

What does the five processes in the second modernity stem from?

Answer 25

They are unforeseen consequences of victories in the first modernity. The challenge is that society has to respond to all of them simultaneously –> reflexive modernity

Question 26

What is reflexive modernity to Beck?

Answer 26

That radicalized modernity undermined the foundation of the first modernity

Question 27

How does the western modernity relate to non-western societies?

Answer 27

Challenge not to see non-western as traditional, but rather focus on the similarities to the western modernity

Question 28

What does Beck mean by the political economy of uncertainty?

Answer 28

Centrally is the power play between territorially fixed political actors (governments, unions) and non-t economic actors (companies). Capital is global, work is local –> can choose between protecting the poor/high unemployment (EU) or decreasing unemployment/high degree of poverty (USA)

Question 29

What is Beck’s point with the cosmopolitan manifesto?

Answer 29

He believes that some transnational-national conflicts and dialogues has to be opened up and organized in a transnational framework. Risk-sharing can be seen as something positive, but in order for it to work there need to be conventions and boundaries around a risk community that shares the burden

Question 30

What are fabricated uncertainties to Beck?

Answer 30

Risk, danger, sideeffects, insurability, individualization and globalization

They are social constructions that are strategically defined, and they do not exist independently of our perception of them

Question 31

What are the different perceptions of globalization?

Answer 31

Realists see the consequences of the industrial production as global, whereas social-constructivists look at globality as transnational discourse coalitions

Question 32

What types of manufactured uncertainties does Beck distinguish between?

Answer 32

Decision-dependent risks that can in principle be controlled, and dangers that cannot be controlled

Question 33

Beck’s three types of global threats?

Answer 33

Conflicts over bads: wealth-driven ecological destruction and technological-industrial dangers
Conflicts related to poverty and conflicts related to NBC-weapon

Question 34

What is sub politics?

Answer 34

Politics outside of national state political institutions, it means shaping society from below. The means direct the politics.

Question 35

What does Beck mean by reflexivity?

Answer 35

We are becoming aware that we produce risks ourselves and the possibility of self destruction

Question 36

What is Luhmann’s distinction between risks and dangers/uncertainties?

Answer 36

Risks are something you run - they lead back to a decision.
Dangers and uncertainties are something you are exposed to - does not refer back to a certain decision

The distinction derives from Knight
Beck’s risk is actually uncertainties