Chapter 4. Riding the Juggernaut in the Risk Society

Abstract

There are irreconcilable and contested positions taken around the definition and understanding of risk. The purpose of this chapter is to locate risk discourse more solidly in a social scientific framework by providing an historical analysis of literature dealing with risk drawing from the fields of risk assessment and, later, the social sciences where two major families of theory have been developed by social scientists: the Psychometric Paradigm and Cultural Theory. “Risk society” is the term used by social scientists to describe modern society-one where tradition has broken down and scientific advances rather than nature dominate our lives. The consequences of human actions across a range of areas have introduced new sources of risk and uncertainty which serve to emphasise the risk(s) involved in making everyday decisions, and a central paradox to the risk society is that these risks are generated by the processes of modernisation trying to control them. In a risk society, traditional certainties and securities can no longer be assumed. Fundamental to this understanding of risk society is the connected breakdown in expert systems and this is particularly relevant to the world of child and youth care.