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Climate science, politics, and the risk society (Risk Society…
Climate science, politics, and the risk society
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Risk Society
For Ulrich Beck (1999), Western societies are living in a transitional period, in which industrial society is rapidly becoming a 'risk society'
In our age of ever intensifying global connectivity, societies are strongly shaped by perceiving the present and the future in terms of risk (Mayer 2016)
Modern society has become a risk society in the sense that it is increasingly occupied with debating, preventing and managing risks that it itself has produced (Komlike 2015)
Scientific and technological modernisation has generated a new type of risk: risks such as the nuclear threat, the dangers of genetic engineering, or anthropogenic global warming are marking by an unprecedented degree of complexity and thus can no longer be negotiated by traditional forms of risk management. The world risk society is therefore characterised by uncertainty. (Mayer 2016)
Risk society is also inherently paradoxical: Whilst science and technology advances are responsible for the emergence of a new type of global risk, they are simultaneously a major institution for identifying and mitigating these risks. In a society permeated by risk, Giddens thus argues "science and technology are double-edged, creating new parameters of risk and danger as well as offering beneficent possibilities for humankind" (Giddens 1991)
Giddens (1991) concurs with Beck and describes a contemporary 'risk culture' - dominated by doubt and the loss of belief in notions of progress through science and technology
Given that risk society is dominated by a culture of uncertainty, this has eroded institutional trust and trust in the 'experts' or scientists who are supposed to produce definitive facts and protect us from those risks. We are more aware of scientific uncertainty and as a result have lost trust in scientific authority. (Mayer 2016)
Individualisation
The risk society is characterised by a roll back of the welfare state - the state retreats from its traditional responsibilities and downloads them onto the citizens, in the process increasing the risks individuals face by making them individually responsible for their own welfare. Greater individualisation is thus accompanied by greater individual risk (Jarvis 2007)
risk society is deeply connected neoliberalism which reflects the rollback of the state and a call from governments for citizens to take greater responsibility for a greater range of societal concerns (Kent 2009)
For Beck (1999), individualisation becomes a 'double edged sword', creating "greater choice and autonomy" but also "the burden of continual decision and responsibility"
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