THE MODERN SOCIETY IS A RISKY SOCIETY

Ulrich Beck was one of the first sociologists to recognize the strange paradox in late modern society; that risk might in fact be increasing due to technology, science and industrialism rather than being abated by scientific and technological progress. Beck's theory represents a continuation of the German tradition of an ethical questioning of modernity, including science and technology, that runs from Max Weber through Jürgen Habermas. Rather than a world less prone to risk, late modernity might actually be creating what Beck famously described as a “world risk society.” Anthony Giddens developed a similar theory in Consequences of Modernity in 1990. Both Beck and Giddens discuss the idea of risk and its unintended consequences in response to a long-standing tradition of Weberian theory of rationalization and bureaucratization. Ulrich Beck work has tapped the cultural psyche of contemporary society and the elevated fears shared across national borders about risks as far ranging as degradations to the global ecology, global health pandemics such as AIDS and SARS, international terrorism, or the health consequences feared as a result of exposure to a myriad of technologies; GMOs, electromagnetic radiation, chemicals, industrial toxins and pollutants––to name but a few. According to Beck, "risk may be defined as a systematic way of dealing with hazards and insecurities induced and introduced by modernization itself". Risks no longer take traditional or natural forms; instead, they derive from decisions deliberately made by humans, often for the sake of technology and advancement. The notion of a "risk society" can be applied in relation to a number of different circumstances in the world today, notably the war on terrorism, oil spills, BSE (mad cow disease), and the Chernobyl disaster. 

 

Many sociologists interested in social change focus on modernization and look at modernization as process by which a society’s social institutions become increasingly complex as the society moves towards industrialization. They use the term modernization to describe the far-reaching process by which society moves from traditional to more developed societies. Modernization theory emphasizes on culture, on the ideas and attitude that promote savings, investment, and economic innovation. Modern societies tend to be urban, literate and industrial. They have sophisticated transportation and media system. Families tend to be organized within the nuclear family unit rather than the extended family model. On the individual level, members of societies which have undergone modernization shift allegiance from such traditional sources of authority as parents and priests to newer authorities such as government officials.