Trends in the development of social risks in modern society: the state-management aspect

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to generalize the trends in the development of social risks in modern society and to identify the features of public administration in minimizing their negative consequences. It is established that changing social positions and public consciousness in conditions of openness of social systems creates new risks, and the analysis of their influence on social behavior becomes one of the most relevant areas in public-management science. The need to study this problem is also conditioned by the need to find ways to minimize risks and influence them in favorable directions for social development. This problem in the conditions of the Ukrainian society, being in the conditions of increased risk, acquires a special urgency. It is substantiated that with the development of scientific knowledge of risks, the latter are increasingly being considered as a systemic object of study. With this approach, given the relevance of this topic, the state-managerial aspect of risk is put on the forefront as the basis for its perception, formation and reproduction. It is proved that risk is an integral component of the knowledge society, its reverse side. If we consider knowledge as a prerequisite for social action and proceed from its relative completeness, then the risk assuming the necessity of making a choice in the conditions of incomplete information becomes its logical consequence and integral characteristic. It is determined that in order to overcome the contradictions in the formation and development of social risks in modern society, it is necessary to expand research capabilities and knowledge itself, primarily in the direction of scientific justification of the state influence on prevention of social risks or minimization of their negative consequences. It is found out that modern social risks have the ability to transform into other types of uncertainties, therefore the knowledge society is able not only to accumulate risks, but to cause really explosive situations. It is proved that risk, like any phenomenon, can be considered as a process that takes place in time, but the dynamics of risk is extremely complex, and the identification of the stages of its development is relatively arbitrary. It is substantiated that the most important from the point of view of public management is the stage of potential risk, as consideration of its content creates the basis for a more integrated and focused approach to minimizing the possibility of a social crisis, reducing its dangerous consequences, preventing state management loss, and systemic collapse. The main feature of this stage is social tension, which requires effective measures on the part of the state. Thus, the modernization of society is steadily leading to an increase in the number of its constituent elements, an ever increasing variety of their interrelationships. As a result, the qualitative and quantitative nature of the consequences of this process changes: the probability of the emergence of new forms of social contradictions increases, and the scale of potential social cataclysms grows. This situation requires drastic changes in the system of public administration with regard to the formation of appropriate mechanisms to prevent and minimize the consequences of new types of social risks.