Conceptions of Risk in Contemporary Society - Essay Example

? Risk Society Risk Society Influential sociological risk literature is applied when analyzing security politics, health issues, and communication. These fields are increasingly infused with notions such as prevention, precaution, and risk management instead of the common logic of threat elimination and defense. The subject of risk has created a banner under which social sciences rally creating enormous research in political science, sociology and economics. Concepts such as risk society by Ulrich Becks and Risk culture by Anthony Giddens create a conviction that risk is a characteristic of contemporary societies and a central aspect when analyzing them. The current modernity is part of the radical break of the transition from industrial to a risk society. Humans must now deal with the global risks introduced by scientific and technological inventions that provide conceptual and technical tools that enable humans identify, quantify, and mitigate risks. The transformations from traditional to modern societies create fundamental societal evolutions that can provide guidelines during risk management. Beck (1992) outlines characteristics and differences between two periods that have caused the risk society. The first period is the industrial society that created a class society corresponding to the primary modernization (Beck, 1992). The second period of the risk society creates a reflexive modernity. The Post-war boom and triumph of capitalism after the cold war created a new form of social organization characterized by individualization. This individualization created successive crises caused by threats to health, economic and medical activities, and scientific environment. These challenges remain at the forefront of public debates and limit expert opinions and regulations (Beck, 1992). The challenges from the scientific environment led to the Chernobyl disaster and catastrophes in Toulouse and New York. These attacks and accidents ushered in the risk society caused by advancement in the field of social advancements created by science and capitalism. According to Beck (1992), the social transformation predominant in the western societies is one of the causes of the risk society. Modernization has led to technological and scientific progress as well as disembodied risks associated with modern technology. Advancement in technology has led to incalculability of consequences associated with the use of these technologies. This was evident during the cold war due to the military inventions of the Soviet Union (Beck, 1992). Western countries felt threatened by the weapons developed by the Soviet Union during the cold war. The western governments had to define enemy capabilities by estimating the number of nuclear warheads owned by the Soviet Union. The west had to pinpoint the targets of the soviet missiles and plan retaliatory attacks in case the soviet army launched attacks. These uncertainties and risks were caused by technological advancements of the modern society. Industrialization and scientific innovations had led to the development of long range nuclear warheads that caused tension between the Soviets and the West. Technological inventions pose threats such as cyber crime to the western countries. Information security is a major concern for several institutions. This has led to counter inventions that protect information and curb cyber crime. Huawei, a Chinese company, has developed hardware technologies that prevent cyber crimes to ensure data security for businesses and governments (The Economist, 2012). Globalization has helped the company expand its services from china to other regions in Africa and Asia. The company has since appealed to the British government to purchase its equipment. The government has the responsibility of protecting its citizens from some of the risks and receives blame when disaster strikes. The British signals-intelligence agency is working together with Huawei to test the equipment to protect the citizens against cyber attacks (The Economist, 2012). Beck (1992) argues that the concept of risk society does not necessarily deal with the increase of risks, but about the spatial and temporal de-bounding. The current issue of globalization by western countries characterizes new risks in the modern society. Globalization has created several unknowns that have created a lack of authoritative explanations about future risks from the experts. Experts have only managed to give definitions and explanations regarding the degree and urgency of risks. This is mainly due to unpredictability of risks and the effects of occurrence. Thus, the society has to reflect on possible future dangers that may materialize at an unspecified time. According to Beck (1992), global risks open paths towards the emergence of a cosmopolitan world society. This transition leads to the emergence of a hierarchical international society that lacks the ability to quantify or predicts the risks it faces. The international society contains a common set of rules that bound the states and institutions that share common activities. These rules establish social order and allow the countries and institutions to pursue common goals. However, these rules do not provide guidelines for creating the international society. Beck (1992) argues that the hierarchy of the international society poses a risk to constituent states and the general society. The rules governing the international society do not outline the construction of the hierarchy and do not address the institutional variations over time. This creates a loophole for future manipulations by powerful institutions and states in the international society. The varying constitutional structures found in different countries create the framework that establishes the international society. The structures found in the western countries vary from those in the Middle East and Asian countries. These differences have the probability of causing difficulties in the future for the international society. Giddens (1990) argues that all societies face challenges and risks due to the outcomes of the natural world such as famine, natural disasters and infectious diseases. In the current society, human responsibility is attached to the risk. The human race is responsible of creating the risk as well as mitigating its effect. The risks affecting the modern society are global, and their effects are far reaching since they are products of human endeavor. Human beings are responsible for risks emanating from environmental pollution, ionizing radiation, and contaminated foodstuffs. Natural catastrophes such as landslides and floods are as a result of human activities of land clearing (Bogen, Jones and Fischer, 2007). These risks are difficult to deal with since they require expert intervention. Experts do not rely on traditions or religious beliefs to shape their decisions about the risks (DeKay et al, 2002). This has created suspicion and mistrust of expert judgment from the general population due to errors in expert conclusions. The global societies discussed by Beck lack ontological security proposed by Giddens (1990). According to Giddens (1990), western societies require a firm knowledge on the expectations as a result of the risks created by globalization. During the cold war, the west and the east faced high risk of destruction and were able to gauge the extent of damage from attacks by their enemies. This gave them a high degree of ontological security since they were able to define the risk and knew what to expect in case of an attack. The current security strategies emerge from the insecurity caused by globalization (Giddens, 1990). Uncertainty caused by globalization make it difficult to gauge the damage or effects of an attack. Global countries are currently preoccupied with potential threats and future undesirable possibilities. This creates a deficit of ontological security that helped countries survive during the cold war. Currently, terrorism, cyber attacks, and nuclear war competitions pose threats globally, and several countries have no idea of what is yet to come. This leaves them exposed to risks and lack of response frameworks in the event of an attack. According to Giddens (1990), risk is a political concept since the government receives blame and responsibility for ill events. People believe that they should be protected by the government from all risks, whether natural or manmade and local or international. Contemporary responses to risks rely on political, traditional, social, and economic structure. This makes the society responsible for mitigating risks within its structures. The government has the sole responsibility of controlling external threats, which makes international attacks entirely political. On the other hand, internal risks can be controlled by the traditional and social structures. Risks such as floods, landslides, and domestic terrorism can be controlled by the society with little government intervention (Giddens,1990). This makes all societies key players in the process of reducing potential risks. For Giddens (1990), the idea of controlling the future has increased manufactured risks. The society constantly monitors its progress and develops policies aimed at providing security against risks. This progress creates the aspiration of gaining control of the future. This control would give the society the ability to prevent future risks from materializing. This is mainly encountered in the security sector. Countries such as USA and Britain are constantly developing new weapons and sophisticated war gadgets. This is in a bid to guard against future attacks from emerging countries such as China and Iran. These competitions have created an epistemological shift in how countries view dangers. The competitions have led to manufactured risks emanating from human development as countries strive to dominate over others. Due to uncertainty contained in modern science, potential dangers are highly available in these inventions. The manufactured risks force countries to relentlessly compete with others and form alliances for self preservation. Risk emerging from modernization creates discourses that place the risk within social groups. Individuals in the society are encouraged to engage in self-regulation in order to reduce the effects of the risk (Allan, Adam and Carter, 2000). Citizens are encouraged to adopt certain practices voluntarily as part of good citizenship. The external government supposed to control risks as discussed by Giddens is internalized to become self government. Citizens travelling in a motor vehicle are supposed to wear a seat belt to avoid serious injuries in case of an accident. Citizens are encouraged to consume a hale and hearty diet as a way of avoiding the risk of poor health (Bennett and Calman, 2005). These activities form self-government around individuals who may not receive protection from the external government over such risks. Citizens have to practice self-control and have self-knowledge to reduce the effects of risks that face them. The external government has the responsibility of providing guidance and laws, and citizens have the responsibility of engaging in self-preservation practices. Industrial society and scientific inventions discussed by Beck have created new risks as well as helped reduce contemporary risks in the field of medicine. Inventions such as drug eluting stents are used by patients suffering from cardiovascular disease (Mak, 2012). The stents prevent the risk of heart attack for CVD patients. Patients suffering from diabetes require coronary revascularization as a contemporary measure against heart attack. The stents help keep the arteries open for patients to have normal blood flow. This strategy serves as an intervention for risks faced by patients suffering from diabetes who have a high chance of getting a heart attack (Mak, 2012). The modernization of the society has a positive element in the field of scientific inventions. The stents are used worldwide as a result of globalization. The stents are produced in the western countries, but countries in Africa and other contents utilize them for treatment. This can be attributed to the international society created by globalization. Environmentalists, consumer protection groups and industries have enacted principles aimed at protecting the general population from contemporary risks (EMBO, 2007). This has led to the regulation of environmental, technological, and health risks posed by science, innovation, and trade. States have to apply a precautionary approach to protect the environment. This involves applying cost-effective interventions to prevent environmental degradation in cases where there is the lack of certain scientific interventions (Finucane et al, 2000). The government has the bigger task of environmental conservation than the general population. There are scientific techniques for risk assessment that can provide comprehensive information to policy makers who develop environmental conservation laws. The scientific techniques identify the risk, determine the probability of occurrence, and provide mitigation techniques. Expert-based risk assessment involves rigorous scientific experiments and models that are used for risk governance (EMBO, 2007). The results obtained from these experiments are used in expert decision making. These decisions determine the extents at which the government and other institutions will protect the citizens. In this science and technology-centered age, the society lacks professional and impartial means of informing the citizens about risks (Bogen, Jones and Fischer, 2007). Journalists may at times misrepresent risks as a way of passing information that grabs and holds readers. Journalists are faced with scientific uncertainty, difficulty with data, social network advocacy, and new cycles (Allan, Adam and Carter, 2000). News is supposed to have originality, personality, relevance to real life, and relevance to several people. They are therefore to make a choice as reporters and have to go by what they have. Science reporters are the majority victims of risk misrepresentation. Scientific risks discussed by Beck and Giddens are misrepresented when journalist derive their information from the social media and blogs. The journalists make their own decisions due to lack of experts who can give concrete risk assessments. Trustworthy risk communication requires readers and viewers to have a sense of the consequences of risk assessment regarding individual and population risks. Therefore, journalists have to create a balance between raising awareness of risk responsibly and unnecessarily alarming the public. Risks are foreseen dangers that pose threats to individuals, states, or the general societies. Unlike threats, risks cannot be eliminated or controlled. The modern society discussed by Beck and Giddens is faced with several risks emanating from industrialization, globalization, and scientific inventions. The society is faced with manufactured risks created by scientific inventions on warfare, international trade, and other activities experienced in the modern society. Currently, risks are encountered in all fields starting from the environment, medicine, to social sciences. Citizens rely on the government to control most of these risks, but even the citizens have a role to play in mitigating the risks. References Allan,S., Adam, B & Carter, C (eds.). 2000. Environmental risks and the media, K.Cross (trans.) London: Routledge. Beck, U. 1992. Risk Society: towards a new modernity. London: Sage. Bennett, P. and Calman. K. 2005. Risk communication and public health. Oxford medical publications. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Bogen, K.T., Jones, E.D., and Fischer, L.E. 2007. Hurricane destructive power predictions based on historical storm and sea surface temperature data. Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis. 27(6),1497-517. DeKay, M. L., Small, M. J., Fishbeck, P. S, Farrow, R. S., Cullen, A., Kadane,J. B., Lave, L. B, Morgan, M. G, & Takemura, K. 2002. Risk-based decision analysis in support of precautionary policies. Journal of Risk Research, 5(4), 391–417. EMBO. 2007. 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