Risk Society Research Articles

Distance learning is a social risk factor

The article is devoted to an actual problem – distance learning. Distance learning is a qualitatively new progressive type of training based on modern information technologies and means of communication, the rapid surge of which is caused by the pandemic that has engulfed most of the planet. Interest in the study of the realities of post-industrial society is dictated by the need to study the nature of the transformations that occur with a person under the influence of those technological changes that have penetrated into all spheres of human existence: on the one hand, a new environment is being formed, opening up unlimited opportunities for the accumulation and transmission of information, communication in electronic network communities, on the other – these acquisitions carry potential threats and risks in both the distant and foreseeable future, and to a greater extent, in our opinion, the expected consequences of global modernization pose the greatest threat to such a specific area as education. The subject that caused the greatest number of the most acute discussions was the impact of distance learning on the quality of training of future specialists, on the degree of development of their communication skills. The main task of the article is to justify and argue distance learning as a new form of learning, to identify its problems and positive aspects. The article presents an analysis of theoretical approaches to distance learning for Russian and foreign researchers. Based on the results of a sociological study, the attitude of students to distance learning is revealed, and their assessment of the degree of development of their own communication skills in remote learning is obtained. The authors conclude that distance learning to a certain extent becomes a risk factor, depriving students of the opportunity to develop the qualities that modern conditions require of them: self-organization, self-control, and communication skills. Despite the fact that distance learning has become an integral part of the educational process, we are convinced that this form should only be a part, a component of the educational process, a "safety cushion" in a situation of force majeure. The leading form of educational classes at the university should remain the traditional classroom form of conducting classes as the only form that can prepare a person for life and successful functioning in a risk society

The seeds of a European risk society: Marcinelle and the European Coal and Steel Community

ABSTRACT The disaster in the Bois du Cazier mine in Marcinelle, Belgium was one of the biggest mining accidents in post-Second World War Western European history. The death toll was large: 262 miners died, of whom 136 were Italian. This article studies the transnational impact of that event by combining theoretical frameworks from both risk studies and European integration literature, with a specific focus on the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). After the catastrophe, numerous actors shifted the question of blame from an individual and national level to the European level. Mining risks were discussed as a structural and European issue. Furthermore, the ECSC saw the disaster as an opportunity for more European integration in new domains, most notably social policy. An intergovernmental conference in 1957 placed new policy areas, such as the harmonization of technical standards, emergency management, working conditions, wages and arrangements for foreign labourers on the political agenda. The conference and the body that was founded after it – the Mines Safety Commission – are often portrayed as failures because they did not manage to complete this ambitious social agenda. Still, the Marcinelle accident had a long-lasting impact on the way in which risks and disasters were managed on the European level. Some measures were deemed more ‘technical’, but played a social role as well. The implemented and established institutions and practices within the High Authority remained influential in the decades to come. On a more theoretical level, the case of Marcinelle illustrates the importance of combining risk and European integration frameworks. By studying Marcinelle from a risk management perspective, it is possible to transcend the current historiographic discussions, which seem stuck in a normative quarrel about responsibilities and blame.

One globalisation or many? Risk society in the age of the Anthropocene

My goal in this article is to reconsider current ideas of globalisation, and of the relations between nature and society, by looking at two theoretical programmes of the past four decades. I start by reconsidering Ulrich Beck’s theory of risk society and highlight some of its core strengths and weaknesses. I then revisit more recent debates on the Anthropocene and unpack some key dimensions. There, I contend that arguments on the Anthropocene allow us to develop a more robust concept of globalisation than those currently available: an idea of globalisation that is the inescapable condition of what humans are as a species. Finally, I offer some preliminary reflections on the new stage of globalisation that seems to have started with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Botched Ebola Vaccine Trials in Ghana: An Analysis of Discourses in the Media.

In June 2015, proposed Ebola vaccine trials were suspended by the Ministry of Health of Ghana amid protests from members of parliament and the general public. Scholarship has often focused on the design, development, and administration of vaccines. Of equal importance are the social issues surrounding challenges with vaccine trials and their implementation. The purpose of this study was to analyze discourses in the media that led to the suspension of the 2015 Ebola vaccine trials in Ghana. I use a sociological lens drawing on moral panic and risk society theories. The study qualitatively analyzed discourses in 18 semi-structured interviews with media workers, selected online publications, and user comments about the Ebola vaccine trials. The findings show that discourses surrounding the Ebola vaccine trials drew on cultural, biomedical, historical, and even contextual knowledge and circumstances to concretize risk discourses and garner support for their positions. Historical, political, and cultural underpinnings have a strong influence on biomedical practices and how they are (not) accepted. This study highlights the complexity and challenges of undertaking much needed vaccine tests in societies where the notion of drug trials has underlying historical and sociological baggage that determine whether (or not) the trials proceed.

Restraint under conditions of uncertainty: Why the United States tolerates cyberattacks

Abstract The United States struggles to impose meaningful costs for destructive or disruptive cyber operations. This article argues that the United States' restrained responses stem from a desire to avoid risk in an inherently uncertain operational environment. The societal desire for risk avoidance is the prism through which policymakers address the cyber domain and deliberate responses to attacks. The article shows that two particular operational characteristics of cyberspace—its complex adaptiveness and the ease of proliferation—combine to increase the risk of misattribution and the risk of unintended effects, including collateral damage, inadvertent escalation and blowback. These characteristics present a particular obstacle for risk societies such as the United States in the application of meaningful punishments. In addition to establishing the roots of US restraint, the article traces the application of risk management practices, including preventive action, increasing resilience and consequence management, from the Obama administration to the Trump administration. The analysis reveals that risk management has underpinned the overall US approach to the cyber domain.

Reproduction of Communicative Negativity Through Instrumental Irrationality

This paper aims to use Turkey as an ex­ample of how the erosion occurring in social communication practices is repro­duced in the era of paradoxical experi­ences, particularly in global crisis envi­ronments where risk intensity increases. Recently, ‘the great incarceration’ situa­tion around the world has forced people to receive news and connect to them via digital platforms. The isolation of social relations for an indefinite period, espe­cially in risk society, causes people to feel constantly under pressure from an un­foreseen/indeterminate threat. The in­crease in the level of anxiety of the indi­vidual under pressure, internalizing fear after a while, turns him/herself into the very mechanism that produces anxiety and fear. This mechanism causes society to become paralyzed as a result of in­creased information pollution and the amount of information during global crisis periods. The paper examines how the negativity in communication has been exploited through the media with crises in different institutional areas —political, economic, and social— re­cently, in the framework of the terms of risk and trust used by Giddens and Beck’s risk society theory. From this point on, the paper focuses on the con­sequences of the mutual relationship between global crisis, fear culture and the new modern period. Keywords: COVID-19, global crisis, info­demic, risk society, sociology of commu­nication, media.

Risk Toplumu Bağlamında Covid-19 Haberlerine Yönelik Bir İnceleme

Yaşam varolduğundan beri insanoğlu farklı biçimlerde çeşitli risklerle karşılaşmışlardır. İlk çağlarda doğa şartlarına karşı savunmasız olan insanlar birlikte yaşamaya başlayarak ve çeşitli önlemler alarak bu risklere karşı durmaya çalışmıştır. Teknik anlamda yaşanan gelişmelerle birlikte farklı riskler ortaya çıkmış ve mücadele konusunda da yine bilime başvurulmuştur. İlkel topluluklardan modern toplumlara kadar geçen dönemde büyük bilimsel gelişmeler yaşansa da gelinen noktada bu gelişmelerin sorunları da beraberinde getirdiği görülmektedir. Özellikle son iki yüzyılda yaşanan sanayi alanında gelişmeler ve büyük dünya savaşları teknolojik gelişimi hızlandırmış dünya hiç olmadığı kadar risklerle dolu bir yer olmuştur. Bu kapsamda Alman akademisyen Ulrich Beck içinde yaşanılan dönemi Risk Toplumu olarak adlandırmaktadır. Özellikle son dönemde tüm dünyada yaşanan Covid-19 salgını Beck’in kuramını ve endişelerini haklı çıkarır niteliktedir. Bu bağlamda çalışmada Beck’in Risk Toplumu bağlamında Covid-19 haberlerinin internet haber organlarında temsiline odaklanılmıştır. Çalışmada Hürriyet ve Sözcü gazetelerinin haber siteleri nitel ve nicel içerik analizi tekniği ile incelenmiştir. Elde edilen bulgular SPSS paket programı ve Maxqda nitel veri analiz programlarında analiz edilmiştir. Buna göre ilgili haber sitelerinde mayıs ayı içerisinde sunulan haberlerde kamuoyunu bilgilendirmeye yönelik haberlerin sıklığı dikkat çekmektedir.

The Socio-Political Role of Zombie Categories. A Case Study of the Referendum Amending Article 48 of The Romanian Constitution (6-7 October 2018)

Our scope was to explain the failure of the Referendum on the revision of Article 48 of the Romanian Constitution, regarding the definition of family (held in 2018 and known as the "traditional family referendum"). We hypothesized that in Romania the traditional family has become a "zombie" category, unable to produce an authentic mobilization of the social-political actors. Still, the traditional family represents an anchor that counteracts insecurity and anxiety caused by the "risk society" in which we live. This function is capitalized by social-political actors as a source of their legitimation. Our understanding was based on the processual analysis of this issue on the public agenda, from inflammation to extinction. This analysis clearly showed the process of gradual demobilization of the actors involved.

A valoração ecossistêmica da área afetada pela barragem 1 da Vale S.A – Brumadinho/MG

O presente trabalho analisou por meio da interdisciplinaridade os efeitos causados pelo crime ambiental e social oriundos do rompimento da barragem 1, da mina do Córrego do Feijão, no município de Brumadinho/MG, pertencente a empresa Vale S/A. Abordou ao longo de quatro eixos teses importantes, como: sociedade de risco, decrescimento econômico, serviços ecossistêmicos e valoração ambiental. Devido ao maior impacto do rompimento estar relacionado as vidas humanas, indo em direção contrária ao ocorrido em Mariana/MG, o objetivo central consistiu em valorar a área atingida, que se chegou ao montante de R$ 189.712.676,15/ano. Esse valor deve ser entendido como um valor mínimo pela perda dos ecossistemas, para que possa auxiliar em políticas públicas pautadas no devir, buscando um desenvolvimento sustentável, para que o setor mineral se reapresente como uma dádiva a sociedade. Nesse sentido, as teorias da sociedade de risco e do decrescimento econômico nos oferece uma reflexão crítica ao atual modelo explorador no Brasil, visto que pelo método qualitativo indutivo se percebe que essas riquezas se constituem uma maldição aos territórios, sendo esses objetos a uma empresa sujeito. Palavras chave: Valoração Ecossistêmica. Sociedade de Risco. Decrescimento. Economia Ecológica. Crimes Corporativos.

Contesting Relations of Definition: Climate Risk and Subpolitics in Singapore

ABSTRACT In recent years, a growing number of climate-focused civil society groups have emerged in Singapore, challenging the direction that the government is taking for climate action. This paper uses Ulrich Beck’s risk society thesis and Brian Wynne’s critique of the dominant institutionalized culture of science to examine the ‘relations of definition’ in an era of climate change, highlighting how climate risk is constructed and contested in the context of an Asian technocratic state that appears outwardly committed to tackling climate change. Through participant observation, semi-structured interviews and content analysis of government policies, we argue for the emergence of a climate-focused subpolitics in Singapore organized by civil society groups. In this paper, we describe how this subpolitics is fuelled not only by contestations between expert knowledge, but by differing framings of morality and justice. Furthermore, despite the Singapore state’s outward alignment towards climate action, the continual emphasis on expert understandings of climate risk stymies more meaningful engagement between these climate civil society groups and state bodies. We suggest that in order to meaningfully engage in a ‘whole-of-nation’ approach, the wider meanings of risk must be considered in future collaborations between state bodies and civil society.

Pandemic and the Risk: A Sociological Analysis of Present Condition of Indian Society Due to Covid-19

Indian society is diverse and has a complex social order. It has been shaped by various processes such as industrialization, globalization, and modernization. Indian societies are often affected by various public health crises. Recently COVID-19 outbreak has shattered the world. After its emergence in the city of Wuhan in China, it has gradually spread to other countries making them more vulnerable. Academicians and the experts have warned about the deadliest consequences of COVID-19. Sociologists who study social phenomena need to analyze the consequences associated with COVID-19 sociologically. The consequences are not simply health issues but in terms of economy, education, and many more. The world affected by the pandemic is all set to alter the societal structures and functions. The entire globe is at risk because of this. The concept of risk society was advocated by Ulrich Beck and for him; risks of modern society are reflexive and self-induced. Technological changes and human activities have been the causes of risk in modern society. With the impact of globalization, the consequence of the risk is not only personal but also global. The ‘new modernity’ phase of the modern world ultimately has given birth to a risk society. In new modernity, nature and society are one hence every action goes for the management of this risk. COVID-19 has not only affected the Indian health sector but also our environment, education sector, economy, polity, and, everything. The risks are multifaceted and India being a developing country is more vulnerable. The present paper is based on secondary sources and aims at discussing the risk society concept in association with Indian society due to the present COVID- 19 situation. Along with this, the paper attempts to suggest possible ways of managing these risks.

Mobility and Cultural Convergence in the Context of Modernity—A Case Study of the Immigrant City: Shenzhen

The concept "mobility" always has a rich connotation in my mind that it refers to not only demographic changes, but also far-reaching impacts of social, economic, cultural and demographic reproduction of a country or region. Mobility is regarded as an animal instinct and attribute, but its significance for human is manifested not only in biological characteristics, but also in the form of diversity in society, history and civilization. In the process of modernization, "modernity" and "mobility" have a much closer relationship and "immigration culture" is undoubtedly the most representative practice of this relationship in contemporary society. Indeed, cultural convergence is more than short-term cultural changes; it is a large-scale, long-term and gradual change of concept, behavior criterion, social structure and other aspects. This paper puts forward the social concept "mobility" in the context of modernity and takes the example of Shenzhen, China's largest immigrant city to analyze the characteristics of population migration, cultural convergence and the corresponding impacts of "risk society" (Giddens, 1994:5). Through interviews, case study and personal reflection, this paper investigates the significance of mobility in relation to cultural convergence which not only means "movement" but also means "meaning" and examines whether "mobility" is a representation of cultural reproduction and a basic feature of modernity.

ЭКОЛОГИЧЕСКАЯ БЕЗОПАСНОСТЬ В ОБЩЕСТВЕ РИСКА

The current situation in the risk society characterised by the new realities (from the global climate change to the pandemic penetration of a new virus in the human body) has brought to light the need to turn to a new paradigm of posthumanism, i.e. supplementing the unequivocal optimistic orientation on sustainable development with a more pessimistic, but also more topical and realistic, survival strategy aligned with extreme ethics, a new for ecological security in risk society.

The problem of risk and responsibility in modern society

The article examines the changes that have occurred in the nature of risks and threats in modern society. The authors refer to the works of foreign and domestic researchers who have contributed to the explanation of the transformations that have taken place in the so-called risk society. Thus, attention is paid to understanding the foundations of the sociology of risk in the works of O.N.Yanitsky; the difference between the two types of modernity by U.Beck; differentiation of risk and danger N.Luhmann; new properties of risks in the context of globalization by A.Giddens; the ability of social systems to produce risks, described in the works of O.Renn; the peculiarities of the world of high-risk technologies by Ch. Perrow; methods of adaptation to the risks considered by E.V. Shlykova; the role of politics and the state in relation to risks by P. Slovic and K.Tierney. The authors emphasize the global nature of modern risks. Emphasis is placed on the inequality of society, social communities and individuals in the face of threats associated with various risks. Also, the problem of responsibility and the inevitable politicization of risks are considered. The article discloses the conflicting nature of the relationship between risk producers and risk consumers, including different motivations of these actors. By raising issues of political intervention and governance in a “risk society”, the authors address the issue of equity. It is noted that responsibility, positive and negative consequences of risk should be evenly distributed among members of society. The opposite situation could be reason for serious conflicts. An alternative to such a development of events can be an open and broad public discussion, which can help to defend the interests of all participants and resolve the problem of imbalance on a more equitable basis. The authors note different variants of adaptation to risks, and tendencies towards the emergence of protest moods as one of the forms of this adaptation.

Risk studies at St. Petersburg State University: From tradition to new challenges

The article examines the thirty-years’ experience in risk studies that has been acquired by scholars at St. Petersburg State University. The authors analyze the distance travelled from the first attempts to integrate risk approach into Soviet sociology to current research carried out at the intersection of conflict studies and risk studies approaches. Using classic research interpretations of risk and risk perception, such as “risk society” (U.Beck), “cultural theory” (M.Douglas, A.Wildavsky), “system theory” (N.Luhmann), the authors identify several features that distinguish the St. Petersburg University approach in risk studies, such as applying risk theory to the whole social system rather than isolated business or political cases. As an example of this approach to examining risk, the article presents the results of an all-Russian survey carried out by project group of St. Petersburg University in order to identify risk-reflections as a factor in conflict strategy choice. The collected data demonstrates that the integration of risk and conflict studies offers significant opportunities for highlighting the divergence of interests between producers and consumers of risks. At the same time, the original research strategy should facilitate the creation of a realistic model for the evaluation of effective political risk management. The authors conclude that the present phase of risk research by scholars at St. Petersburg University is characterized by the consolidation of conflict and risk studies that makes it possible, on the one hand, to investigate any risk as a conflicting phenomenon and, on the other hand, to examine risk perception as a special discursive practice which has a high manipulative potential.

COVID-19 and Risk Society

COVID-19 and Risk Society

O IMIGRANTE COMO CIDADÃO GLOBAL

Migration has ceased to be a problem of the states and hasbecome an issue of interest of the international community, and thereforeits global perspective, which stems from the risk society and globalization,must be studied, institutionalized and analyzed in the light of humanrights standards in the context of cosmopolitanism. Moreover, the globalcitizenship of the immigrant should be consolidated through the multiculturalperspective and with the prevalence of the right to difference.The intensification of migratory flows, resulting from human rights violations,consigns the relevance of the theme, which is justified by the needto refute the policy of securitization of borders by States, which leads tothe dehumanization of immigrants, treated as minority groups, strangersand dangerous. Based on the above assertions, it is worth noting that thegeneral objective of this paper is to analyze the intersectionality betweenmigration, citizenship and multiculturalism and, in turn, the specificobjective is to analyze the legal institute of global citizenship as a meansof conferring the ability to act to immigrants in the supranational context.The deductive method was chosen, with the technique of indirect documentationand the procedure of doctrinal and legislative analysis. As aresult, it is expected to reach, as a result, the verification of the idea thatglobal citizenship supplants national citizenship and is exercised withinspaces of political and democratic participation that take into considerationthe personality rights of the immigrant, as a subject of internationallaw. The article will be composed of three chapters, divided as follows:initially, the paper will analyze migration from a global perspective, then,it will go into the study of the multicultural perspective of migration and,finally, it will address the institute of global citizenship of immigrants froma multicultural perspective. With these objectives, with the methodologyadopted and due to the relevance of the topic, the purpose of the workis to answer the following problem: is multiculturalism able to guaranteethe means of action to the immigrant so that he is effectively considereda global citizen?

“New Wars”: Disappearance of the Future and/or Synchronization of Temporalities

The future-oriented temporal regime of modernity is today being replaced by presentism in the perception of time, not only in Russia or Eastern Europe, but throughout the world. However, this presentism does not always imply subordination of the past and future to the interests of the present. It may involve a conflict among temporalities, which will be settled by a violent synchronization of heterogeneous temporal outlooks or by recognizing radical time gaps. Most often, the politics of time is observable at the macro-level — as subordination of common commemoration practices to dominant narratives or regimes that exercise power over knowledge. In this interpretation, “politics from below” acts as a response to hegemony, but its failure is inevitable. The article points out the artificiality of that dichotomy by studying the writings about “new wars,” which are now becoming a decentralized system for the use of violence to reach extremely varied pragmatic goals. One of those goals is managing the future in a “risk society” or the endless prolongation of a present in which the boundary between ordinary and extraordinary violence is blurred. But at the same time, the “new wars” are also synchronizing “from below.” The politics of time is generated by the incompatibilities between past, present and future without ever reaching a stable symbolic hierarchy. Under these conditions it becomes quite difficult to separate “wartime” and “peacetime”. The article takes up the problematic nature of this demarcation in relation to cotemporary local conflicts in both Russia and the West.

Biopower transformation and the challenge of safe agricultural production (socio-philosophical and political-economic aspects)

paper analyzes the character of modern biopower from the socio-philosophical and political-economic viewpoints in the scope of the society’s transition to a new technological wave and the necessity of ensuring the secure existence of people. Using argicultural production as an example, the main trends and peculiarities of such transformation, the issues arising in this regard, and the ways to solve them are shown. Their impact on the existential crisis of personality developing in the modern “risk society” is also significant. The authors try to identify the prospects for the development of biopower and modern biopolitics in the scope of the new social reality, growing macroeconomic uncertainty, and risks.

Проблема массовизации антиутопии как жанра искусства в условиях общества риска

The problem of this article is the problem of transformation and massization of the genre of dystopia and its loss of its essential features. The hypothesis of the study is the existence of a close relationship between the processes of massizing art and the popularization of dystopia in modern mass culture and public consciousness. The authors draw attention to the role of dystopia in modern society, which can be characterized as a risk society, as well as to the influence of dystopias on the consciousness of the masses. The main methodological technique is functional analysis. In addition, dialectics, the principle of historicism and comparative analysis are applied. The result of the study is the provision that in modern society there is an emphasis on the process of massization of art, during which the border between elite and mass culture becomes much less obvious. In addition, the study clarifies the role of literary works in spreading risks and the requirement of moral, and possibly legal responsibility for such acts. The key conclusion is the provision according to which, in the conditions of blurring the boundaries between elite and mass art, dystopia is becoming a popular genre and has an impact on social reality.