Risk Society Research Articles

Международный режим декарбонизации как инструмент имплементации ценностей общества риска

The coronavirus pandemic has actualised the “Global Risk Society” concept. The purpose of this article is to examine the emergence of an international decarbonisation regime in terms of the values of the “global risk society” as updated by the coronavirus pandemic. Under the conditions of “new normality”, new values that determine the socio-political development of society are taking shape. Relying on the “Global Risk Society” theory, the authors derive its emerging values, the emergence of which is associated with the pandemic and its socio-economic effects. Thus, new values include the abandonment of faith in progress and a focus on crisis management (resilience), global solidarity as a key condition for survival, the search for a balance between freedom and security, effective response and regulation, “open innovation” as part of the “global commons”, rethinking of the value of consumption, and finally, the value of the climate agenda as a global green imperative comes to the fore. These values are of importance for a global climate agenda as well, which has become more acute during the pandemic. A key actor here is the European Union, which, through its policy of normative power and environmental ethics, is shaping a new international decarbonisation regime as an instrument for realising these values. And this “new ethic” has no national boundaries. Such international regime aims to create a regulatory framework for responding to climate risks that has the potential to profoundly affect global development and lead to a fundamentally new international climate order.

Growing up trends in Russia and foreign countries: common and specific

The purpose of the present article is to analyze growing up trends and specific features of life trajectories of young people in Russia and foreign countries. The key factors accompanying the process of maturation of representatives of Millennial and Z generations include prolongation of the educational process and of acquiring financial independence, expansion of youth boundaries, non-linearity and diversity of life paths, specific cyclicity of “personal” events occurring. The research demonstrates that the life in the context of global risk society and permanent social instability requires young people to develop specific skills, willingness to constantly change and good adaptive abilities. It is also highlighted that the 21st century maturation patterns are influenced by the socio-cultural, economic, political specificities and traditions of a certain country or region. For example, the Anglo-Saxon model of maturation involves a desire for early separation from parents; countries with a strong social support system (Northern Europe), by contrast, are characterized by rather late maturation; societies with weak state welfare systems or with strong family traditions (Southern Europe, Latin America, Afro-Asian countries) usually rely on family resources and support from relatives; the transition from youth to maturity in the developed countries of Asia has a distinctive glocal nature. The mode of growing up in some regions (usually involved in armed conflicts) is subject to the regulations of survival in extreme situations. Russia is characterized by Pan-European and local maturation trends, as the life trajectories of Russian youth are significantly influenced by regional differences. The author also makes an assumption regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on these trends.

Confidence in Science: Perceptions of Harmful Consequences, Scientific Uncertainty, and the Pursuit of Self-Interest in Scientific Research

The author uses risk society theory to develop hypotheses about sources of confidence in science. The focus is on perceptions that science creates harms, scientific knowledge is uncertain, and scientists pursue self-interests. Controls are included for political and religious identity and ideology, science knowledge, and other variables. Data are from two cross-sectional waves of the General Social Survey. Analyses using additional cross-sectional and panel samples from the General Social Survey are used to evaluate the robustness of the findings and to test the direction of causality; these are presented in the Appendix. The results indicate that perceptions of harmful consequences, scientific uncertainty, and self-interested scientists are associated with lower confidence. The results are robust across a variety of topics and types of scientists. The findings suggest that some strategies intended to increase public confidence in science, such as greater transparency or political mobilization in defense of science, might have the opposite effect.

Citizenship Education in World Risk Society: an Evolutionary perspective

Citizenship Education in World Risk Society: an Evolutionary perspective

Digital Nomads and the Covid-19 Pandemic: Narratives About Relocation in a Time of Lockdowns and Reduced Mobility

Digital nomads (DNs) are independent professionals who rely heavily on digital media and communications, are not bound to the constraints imposed by traditional organizations, and prioritize variables such as cheaper living costs when deciding where to live. Communication technologies enable the emergence of this digital lifestyle that is characterized by high mobility, self-efficacy, location-independent resource-sharing, and minimalism. The immediate outcome of the Covid-19 pandemic created an unprecedented space for debate between the DN community and the mainstream. On the one hand, the mainstream recognized the adaptive advantages of location independence and working remotely; on the other, DNs realized that one of their most fundamental values—the freedom to move—could become compromised by stringent border regulations forcing them to reassess nomadism. This article draws on risk society theories, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and self-actualization, to approach this problem. We Analyzed content produced by DN creators on YouTube, focusing on risk perceptions and arguments about the choice of staying nomad, compared with the alternative, that is, going back “home” seeking safety: (1) we found that most creators upheld core DN values, rather than shifting to fear-based or risk-control narratives driven by the effects of the pandemic. The narratives circulated in the videos thus contributed to reinforce the community’s values related to self-actualization, in a time of crisis; (2) as a group, the creators we studied were not biased to one option (keep moving or go home) and rather offered strong arguments to support either choice.

Risk Society: A Pandemic Face of the Modern World Emily John Mandel’s Station Eleven and COVID-19 in relation to Ulrich Beck’s

Ulrich Beck’s notion of ‘risk society’ reveals the ugly aspects of modernity in today’s modern world. It demonstrates bio-ecological and technological terrors in the modern era. The present research paper discusses Emily John Mandel’s Station Eleven, a post- apocalyptic science fiction, and the current outbreak of pandemic of Covid-19 in relation to Beck’s ‘risk society’. Mandel’s Station Eleven, like Covid-19, deals with the pandemic of ‘Georgia flu’ which killed millions of people. The paper aims at exploring the risk features of modern world. It exhibits that today’s globalized world has started manifesting the ugly faces of modernity in the form of terrible biological war which is either a deliberately manufactured one or the outcome of human collective negligent actions resulted in an unwanted catastrophe. The study terms the pandemics as shared fear and the induced outcome of shared actions across the world. Keywords: risk society, apocalyptic literature, modernity, Covid-19, pandemic

Persuasion in science communication

AbstractScience communication has gained high importance in the current knowledge and risk society. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of qualitative studies on how non-experts and experts engage in opinionated scientific debates and which linguistic devices they use to gain influence on other people’s attitudes toward a scientific issue.In our study, we examine dialogical modes of science communication (i.e. weblogs) used by bloggers and audiences to engage into opinionated discourse about scientific endeavors. As those exchanges easily lead to controversies between different points of views, stances and attitudes, we focus from a rhetorically-driven linguistic perspective on devices to persuade the other participants and readers and to control the discourse. Hence, we ask which linguistic instruments are used to gain influence on influence. The aim of our study is to get deeper insights into the persuasive strategies mainly used in those forms of external science communication.

Condition of Private Security in Ulrich Beck's Risk Society: A Study on Civilian-Police Cooperation Method of the Decentralized Policing Systemthrough Comparing the Korean and the Japanese Security Industry Law

Private security industry is still popular in Japan even though the country s crime rate has decreased consistently for nineteen years after 2002 to the point of about a quarter of the record of the year, which means the Japanese high levels of anxiety about their surroundings. This paper examines the general condition of Japanese private security based on Ulrich Beck s theory of risk society and illuminates the Japanese people s sense of crisis behind close civilian-police cooperation under the decentralized policing system. To this end, the characteristics and causes of growth of Japanese private security industry are studied, and the concepts of individualization and globalization are introduced in Ulrich Beck s risk society theory. In addition, the conditions of Japanese private security are analyzed in the light of Ulrich Beck s theory. As a result, it is argued that the concept of risk in Japanese private security is not a physical phenomenon, but rather an effect of high industrialization, which can be caused by individualization and mitigated or removed by globalization. This study is meaningful in drawing academic interest in this discussion of Japanese private security by emphasizing that this business performs a public function that reflects the collective sentiment of members of society in addition to just economic purposes.

IDENTITY CHANGES IN CRISIS SITUATIONS. ANXIETY, FRUSTRATION AND ANGUISH DUE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

In this article, a review of the socio-anthropological literature on the impact of pandemics on the mental health of the population is made. Also, the way this pandemic affects the construction of identity of the population affected by pandemic is taken into discussion. The historical-anthropological perspective refers to the plague epidemic that affected Europe during the Middle Ages, to its psychological impact from the perspective of the individual's relationship with otherness - as a possible source of danger. The article presents a series of similarities and differences from the perspective of anguish, anxiety and frustration caused to the population by the plague pandemic and the Covid-19 pandemic, highlighting the results of studies published during 2020 in journals indexed in Web of Science, dedicated to the impact of the pandemic. of Coronavirus on the mental health of the population. The research focused on several dimensions of the social construction process of the Covid-19 pandemic, among which we mention: information on the pandemic, restrictions imposed by the authorities as elements of social
 (re)construction of the limit of the human condition, medicalization of the social life and the perception of the contemporary society as a risk society. In this article we will refer exclusively to the results aimed at changes in the identity construction of people affected by the pandemic.

Evaluation Of Risk Management Maturity Of A Fintech Firm In Indonesia

This study identified the risk management maturity status, revealed the major sources of the firm risk management maturity, issues in running quality risk management of a financial technology firm in Indonesia, and recommended enhancements. It used the Risk and Insurance Management Society – Risk Maturity Model to evaluate the risk management maturity status. To get detailed information about the risk management implementation, the researchers also did observations and interviews. This study confirmed that the firm was in ad-hoc status. The firm was overconfident of their previous success in implementing risk management and careless in transforming the risk management concepts into real practices. Thus, they lost their ability to decide appropriate decisions in handling the risks that they faced. As a result, they could not run effective and efficient management. Detail findings and recommendations on the risk management maturity of the firm are provided in this article.

Evaluation Of Risk Management Maturity Of A Fintech Firm In Indonesia

This study identified the risk management maturity status, revealed the major sources of the firm risk management maturity, issues in running quality risk management of a financial technology firm in Indonesia, and recommended enhancements. It used the Risk and Insurance Management Society – Risk Maturity Model to evaluate the risk management maturity status. To get detailed information about the risk management implementation, the researchers also did observations and interviews. This study confirmed that the firm was in ad-hoc status. The firm was overconfident of their previous success in implementing risk management and careless in transforming the risk management concepts into real practices. Thus, they lost their ability to decide appropriate decisions in handling the risks that they faced. As a result, they could not run effective and efficient management. Detail findings and recommendations on the risk management maturity of the firm are provided in this article.

UNDERSTANDING THE RISK IN THE YOUTH ENVIRONMENT

The formation of modern youth is taking place in the period of socio-political transformations, which directly impact the life orientations of young people, their behaviour, social-economic situation. The factors mtioned above contribute to the spread of risks associated with threats to health and life, uncertainty of life start and self-realization, value and regulatory uncertainty. The purpose of the article: is to study approaches to identifying risk factors that impact the youth environment. Research methods applied: analysis and synthesis of scientific literature (to clarify the key concepts of the study), systematization (in order to identify existing scientific approaches to solving the problem), theoretical generalization (to formulate the final provisions and conclusions). If earlier scientific researches were mainly concentrated within the limits of natural-scientific and economic courses, now the allocation of a separate interdisciplinary direction − riskology is actual. The majority of young people experience the problem of life-start, which has a negative impact on the working career of young people, their family life and lifestyle and makes young people financially dependent on their parents. Globalization has had a significant impact on the development of the risk society. In the context of globalization, traditional social ties are being destroyed; young people avoid traditional restrictions, but at the same time lose a sense of reliability, stability, confidence in the future and feel anxious and afraid of the need to choose. Therefore, public policy should take into account all the factors that have a negative impact on the youth environment and help minimize the risks and form «socially healthy» youth.

Applying complex adaptive systems and risk society theory to understand energy transitions

Renewable energy transitions are occurring across the globe in response to climate change. Such socio-technical transitions are complex and non-linear. They require bold leadership and innovative policy, both in response to environmental risk and to navigate political, technical and socio-economic conditions. This paper integrates complex adaptive systems and risk society theory to inform a discussion on regional socio-technical transitions. South Australia is forging its own adaptive pathway, and in doing so, is leading energy transitions in Australia. Utilising the complex adaptive cycle to frame the state's renewable energy transition, the path can be seen to be evolving from a simple first modernity to a multi-dimensional second modernity. Socio-technical transitions are partly a by-product of responses to risk. While there is no single map for navigating societal transitions, this paper proposes that risk, in the context of risk society theory, is an important guiding dimension for understanding transformational change in socio-technical systems.

Evaluating and predicting social behavior of arsenic affected communities: Towards developing arsenic resilient society

This study uses six machine learning (ML) algorithms to evaluate and predict individuals' social resilience towards arsenicosis-affected people in an arsenic-risk society of rural India. Over 50% of the surveyed communities were found to be resilient towards arsenicosis patients. Logistic regression with inbuilt cross-validation (LRCV) model scored the highest accuracy (76%), followed by Gaussian distribution-based naïve Bayes (GNB) model (74%), C-Support Vector (SVC) (74%), K-neighbors (Kn) (73%), Random Forest (RF) (72%), and Decision Tree (DT) (67%). The LRCV also scored the highest kappa value of 0.52, followed by GNB (0.48), SVC (0.48), Kn (0.46), RF (0.42), and DT (0.31). Caste, education, occupation, housing status, sanitation behaviors, trust in others, non-profit and private organizations, social capital, and awareness played a key role in shaping social resilience towards arsenicosis patients. The authors opine that LRCV and GNB could be promising methods to develop models on similar data generated from a risk society.

Anxiety and Frustration during the Covid-19 Pandemic

The lockdown and quarantine period set by authorities around the world in order to prevent the spread of the SARS-COV-2 virus has had a significant impact on the mental health of people around the world. The present research, carried out by qualitative methods, aimed at identifying the sources, but also the ways of expressing anxiety, frustration and anguish due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the measures to prevent the spread of the virus. The research was carried out on subjects of Romanian nationality, especially from the North Eastern Region of Romania. The main results of the research are: an extension of the medicalization of social life, the awareness of one's own finitude and the experience of helplessness, as sources of anxiety and frustration, and an accentuated social response to the risk society, manifested as a revolt against the authorities and the need to humanize every day life.

Risk, faith and religious tourism in Second Modernity: visits to Mount Athos in the COVID-19 era

ABSTRACT This study examines the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the decision of people to visit the Mount Athos monastic community. It traces the immediate reaction of pilgrims and visitors to a world religious/ heritage place vis-à-vis the global health risk. The questionnaire-based methodology investigates the respondents' attitude towards faith, as well as their socio-cultural background to contextualize their stances and preferences on the aspects of their past and future visits. Moreover, the terms ‘Risk Society' and ‘Second Modernity' provide a theoretical background in relation to the COVID-19 influence on visitors and pilgrims' motivations. The results of this research point towards the resilience of religious destinations in the face of looming health risks such as the current epidemic.

Social Philosophical Discourse of the World Risk Society in a Pandemic Situation

The author considers the situation associated with coronavirus pandemic and its possible consequences for social cultural processes. The difficulty in risk analysis is that the risk is between objective and subjective, between rational and irrational, between social and existential. The logic of uniqueness gives way to the logic of ambiguity, which finds its expression in the connection of the risk society with the cosmopolitism. Ulrich Beck's concept of the cosmopolitan turn of modern civilization is updated, which is revealed through the concepts of "danger", "social inequality" and through the existentials "fear", "uncertainty", which indicate the social vulnerability of modern society. We are talking about the need to distinguish between risk and danger, about their complex relationship in modern conditions. Global risks include the coronovirus pandemic: risk has become a global hazard from which future risks and crises originate. The reflexivity of the unknown and the methodological cosmopolitanism – point to a global change in the society in the 21st century, whose priority is security. Cosmopolitanism is expressed in social delocalization, which includes three dimensions: spatial, temporal, and social. Risks have symbolic and existential content and include life guidelines, traditions and cultural norms. The coronavirus was a challenge to the intellectual sphere of society. The author focuses on the transformation of risks in the field of science and education. Self-isolation and social distance initiate the active introduction of distance education and media education. Attempts are being made to identify possible risks resulting from the introduction of media technologies in the educational system. The concept of the multiplicity of interpretations of riskogenics allows us to understand the prospects for the transformation of the global risk society in a pandemic situation.

COVID-19, routine dynamics and reflexivity of structure. On the eventful change of Fridays for Future's protest forms

Dieser Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit der Dis/Kontinuität von Routinen zu Beginn der COVID-19-Pandemie, die als Zusammenhang multipler, miteinander verschränkter „Handlungs- und Interaktionskrisen“ (ÖZS Sonderheft 2016, 41/1) begriffen wird. Statt als äußere Faktizität und Ursache des Wandels werden Krise(n) als von Akteur*innen soziomateriell erhandelte und damit kontextspezifisch hervorgebrachte konzipiert. Der Artikel greift die in den organizational studies geführte Debatte zum intendierten Wandel von Routinen auf und ergänzt diese durch eine Reflexion auf die Rolle von Krisen. In methodologischer Hinsicht verbindet der Beitrag Fragen über Routinedynamiken mit der Perspektive der eventful sociology, die im soziomateriellen Erhandeln von Routinen ein potenzielles Initial weitergreifender Strukturveränderungen sieht und daher eine strenge Zeitverlaufsbeschreibung entlang von Pfaden einfordert. Anhand der Ergebnisse einer prozessorientierten ethnografischen Studie zu Fridays for Future Wien identifiziert der Beitrag zwei Bedingungsmomente, die der Reflexivität von Struktur zugrunde liegen (normativ-diskursive und materiell-körperliche) und bettet dieses Verständnis von Reflexivität in die Debatte zur (Welt‑)Risikogesellschaft ein.

Research on Environmental Pollution regulation in China’s Construction Industry

China has proposed the notion of sustainable development in the framework of a hazardous society in response to global environmental challenges. Research on regulatory concerns is critical for ensuring the application of the concept of sustainable development in the building industry. China’s regulation, on the other hand, suffers from a lack of supply and an ambiguous value orientation. The former is a symptom of the current regulatory structure, whereas the latter is the root of the problem. To overcome the value-oriented dilemma, some studies plan to conduct research using the logic of the norm. This has the disadvantage of having a limited field of vision. The interaction between man and nature should be considered while examining value orientation. When anthropocentrism, ecocentrism, and anthropocentrism in ecology are compared to the environmental legislation in my nation, it is clear that anthropocentrism in ecology is the value orientation that should be followed at the moment. Three challenges that require attention are presented based on this value orientation, as well as the uniqueness of the construction industry and risk society theory.

Место и роль научного знания в современном обществе риска и травмы: анализ концепций современных российских социологов

The article refers to the works of O. N. Yanitskiy, Zh. T. Toschenko and S. A. Kravchenko that are focused on modern world social processes, particularly in modern Russia. The purpose of the article is to identify the general and specific views of modern Russian sociologists on the role of scientific knowledge in developing Russian society. The importance of scientific knowledge in the political processes (O. N. Yanitskiy), in the process of developing and implementing the national government strategy (Zh. T. Toshchenko) and, in the most general sense, at the level of social dynamics (S. A. Kravchenko) is out of question. All three authors agree that the progressive development of society is largely determined by the development of the institute of science. Zh. T. Toshchenko hightlights the important role of scientific knowledge in trauma society. O. N. Yanitskiy shows specific mechanisms for the production of social and scientific knowledge and its inclusion in political processes. S. A. Kravchenko focuses on comprehending new qualities and new ways of becoming a scientist and an expert in risk and trauma society.