Living in the World Risk Society

U. Beck’s famous thesis about the «Risk society» (Risikogesellschaft) had been published first in 1986, when he underlined the corrosion of labour norms, the threat of the ecological crisis and the end of the traditionnal forms of family in the western world. It is now discussed in the contemporious frame of globalisation and social insecurity.

In this recent article, Beck resumes his own arguments concerning the «world risk society». The author asserts that we must distinguish between ecological or financial dangers, on the one hand, which he considers as a «side effect», and the threat from terrorism on the other hand. In his opinion, the principle of chance and accident will be replaced by the principle of deliberatley exploiting the vulnerability of modern society.

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Living in the World Risk Society