Ulrich Beck is a contemporary theorist of modernity. He is a German sociologist and has written extensively about risk and globalization. He propounded the influential ‘risk theory’ thesis in ‘Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity’ (1992). He argues that the risk which is inherent in modern society would contribute towards the formation of a global risk society.
‘A Risk society is a systematic way of dealing with insecurities
induced and introduced by modernization itself’ – Ulrich Beck
Modern society has technological change and technology
produces new forms of risks. We are constantly required to respond and adjust to
these changes. The risk we face is not only in environmental and health related
by also interrelated within contemporary social life like shifting employment patterns,
heightened job insecurity, declining influence of tradition and custom, erosion
of traditional family patterns and democratization of personal relationships.
With globalization, the risk does not remain in one
country, but affects all countries and all social classes.
There are a number of new risks that were previously unknown.
These new risks are created by our own social development and by development in
science and technology. For e.g. risks involved in production of Genetically modified
foods.
Thus, new modernity has emerged out of industrial
modernity. Social relations and institutions have to be individually chosen.
Thus Technoculture and risk are an integrated part of modern
society and have changed the way society and culture exist.
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