This book provides a comprehensive and thorough interpretation of Beck's theory of the (world) risk society, from its original formulation up to his sudden death on New Year's Day 2015. Beck's entire body of work is divided into four interrelated phases, which are successively presented and discussed, namely: the original theory of risk society (from 1986 onwards); the theory of the world risk society (from 1996 onwards); the theory of cosmopolitanism and cosmopolitanization (from 1996 onwards); and the theory of 'metamorphosis', 'emancipatory catastrophism and 'global imagined risk communities' (2013–16). The book thus demonstrates how Beck’s concept of the (world) risk society has given us a new language or a special lens that enables us to better understand contemporary society’s complexity and its myriad of human-made uncertainties in terms of climate change, terrorist threats, global pandemics, economic crises, and migration crises.
Erscheinungsdatum: 11.12.2021

lgli/P:\springer_dnd140621\springer\10.1007%2F978-3-030-89201-2.pdf

lgrsnf/921.pdf

Ulrich Beck: A Critical Introduction to World Risk Society and Cosmopolitanism

Rasborg, Klaus

Palgrave Macmillan Springer Nature Switzerland

Springer Nature Switzerland AG

Hans Reitzels Forlag

Springer Nature, Cham, 2021

Switzerland, Switzerland

Cham, Switzerland, 2021

Cham, Switzerland, 2022

2, 20211210

producers:
Adobe PDF Library 10.0.1

Acknowledgements 5
Contents 6
About the Author 7
List of Tables 8
Chapter 1: Introduction 9
References 18
Chapter 2: What Is Risk? 20
Newer Approaches to Risk Analysis 27
Summary 30
References 31
Chapter 3: The Idea of the Risk Society 33
The Contours of the Risk Society 36
Risk, Knowledge and Politics 38
Risk, Danger and ‘Large-Scale Hazards’ 40
Risks as Both Real and Socially Constructed 43
Manufactured Uncertainty 47
Risk as Observation 49
Risk, Insurance and Governmentality 52
Critique of the Realist Understanding of Risk 53
Three Basic Assumptions Underpinning Beck’s Theory 54
Summary 55
References 59
Chapter 4: Individualisation: Beyond Class and Social Communities? 62
Individualisation in the Industrial Society (‘Simple’ Modernity) 64
Individualisation in the Risk Society (‘Reflexive’ Modernity) 67
Individualisation, Beck and Ziehe 76
Individualisation, Beck and Giddens 80
Individualisation, Beck and Bauman 82
Summary 84
References 85
Chapter 5: Reflexive Modernity 90
From Simple to Reflexive Modernity 92
The ‘Modern Counter-Modern’ 97
Reconceptualisation of Sociology in Reflexive Modernity 100
Reflexive Modernity, Late Modernity and Liquid Modernity 103
Multiple Modernities and Amodernity 106
Summary 111
References 112
Chapter 6: Changes to Family, Paid Work and Politics in the (World) Risk Society 115
Changes to the Family and Ways of Living Together 115
The Change in Paid Work (Precarious Work) 128
Changes to Politics (Sub-politics) 136
Summary 144
References 145
Chapter 7: The World Risk Society as a Cosmopolitan Society? 148
The ‘Cosmopolitan Turn’ in Beck’s Theory 148
World Risk Society and Cosmopolitanism 150
Power and Counter-Power in the Age of Globalisation 153
The Cosmopolitan Vision 156
Cosmopolitan Europe 157
A New Critical Sociology with a Cosmopolitan Outlook 163
Cosmopolitanism, Universalism and Multiculturalism 168
Metamorphosis, Emancipatory Catastrophism and Global Imagined Risk Communities 170
Summary 175
References 176
Chapter 8: The (World) Risk Society in a Critical Light 180
Beck’s View of Sociology as a Science 180
Science and Value 180
The Requirement of Representativeness 182
Structure and Actor 183
Macro, Meso and Micro 183
Critique and Ethics 184
Critique of Beck 186
The General Diagnosis of the Risk Society 186
Individualisation 192
Reflexive Modernity 193
Family and How People Live Together 194
Paid Work 194
Sub-politics 197
Cosmopolitanism 198
Summary 200
References 202
References 209
Index 225

2022-04-08