Risk Society Research Articles

Antimicrobial resistance in the risk society – a Danish study on how veterinarians and human medical doctors construct risk through blaming

This article deals with risk and antimicrobial resistance (AMR). AMR is considered to be one of the major global public health threats in the twenty-first century. This article applies the ideas of Ulrich Beck and Mary Douglas about the relation between risk and blame to competing discourses about AMR. AMR is closely connected to the use of antimicrobials in livestock production and for preventing/treating human infection. Using qualitative interviews with professionals from the human medical sector and the agricultural sector in Denmark, the article shows how representatives from the two sectors frame and construct AMR risks by blaming each other. Our study shows how experts within the human medical and veterinarian fields construct their own risk assessments in relation to AMR by making claims that shift blame to the other sector. They create a distinction between ‘us’ and ‘them’ and a kind of ‘otherness’ that is used to identify risky behaviour and the overuse of antimicrobials.

THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC EXPLOITED BY EXTREMISTS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN INDONESIA AND GERMANY

This article aims to show that extreme groups, including their sympathizers, delegitimize the government by exploiting radical narratives during the Covid-19 pandemic. Two countries, namely Indonesia and Germany, as examples in a comparative study through qualitative methodology with risk society theory and conspiracy narratives. The results of the study show four findings, namely (1) the resistance response of extreme groups to the government increased during Covid-19; (2) online dissemination of radical narratives is increasing in both Indonesia and Germany; (3) the characteristics of extreme groups and their sympathizers are almost the same in Germany and Indonesia; and (4) the social life of society that coexists with technology is an entry point for extreme groups on social media. In conclusion, in the future, extreme groups and their sympathizers will always optimize their agenda online, because they succeeded in doing so during the implementation of the Covid-19 social restrictions.

Towards the Digital Risk Society: A Review

Abstract Digitalization is often associated with optimistic grand narratives about a future society in academic discourse. While the word is frequently linked with hopes and expectations of societal rebirth and beneficial changes for societies and organizations, there has been little attention given to systematically investigating the risks associated with digitalization. This paper aims to investigate the relationship between digitalization and risk, thereby characterizing “the digital risk society.” By conducting a narrative summary and thematic analysis of 34 academic papers three aggregated themes were outlined: First, in the digital risk society, intangible technologies serve as solutions while simultaneously introducing new risks. Second, as an increasing number of tasks are delegated to machines with opaque inner functions, society is suffering from dehumanization. Third, scholars are calling for new approaches to govern these technologies, spurred by concerns over their potentially harmful use.

Situated (im)mobilities research in the mobile risk society: the dispersed management of risk of contagion in public transport

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the in-situ accomplishment of travelling together during the turbulent times of a global pandemic. It expands the literature on the Mobile Risk Society to enquire into the dispersed, situated management of risk of contagion in public transport. Particularly, it suggests combining the grand theory and epochal account for risk assumed by Beck with a Foucauldian governmentality-perspective that understands risk management as the numerous endeavours to steer and manage the conduct of passengers as well as, importantly, the passengers’ conduct of themselves. Appropriating ethnomethodological categorisation analysis, the paper analyses video footage from inside train carriages running in the north region of Denmark during the pandemic and points out the fine-grained details of passengers’ interactional negotiation and fulfilment of the train company’s risk-management strategy.

“That Great Mother of Danger”

Were one to trust the experts of “the risk society,” and the countless volumes that take risk as their object, one might conclude that we have lost sight of danger. How secure is the distinction? This essay registers the discursive proliferation that has surrounded risk, as opposed to the poverty of theorizations of danger. Since Mary Douglas's famous 1966 contribution, it is as if the two terms were synonymous. Yet linguistic usage, along with other counterexamples, signal that we might learn from attending to danger in its specificity. The essay then turns to Sigmund Freud, that little-recognized thinker of danger. It was Freud who located loss—and the mother—at the center of what he strikingly called the “danger-situation.”

Impact of COVID-19 Surge Periods on Clinical Outcomes of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation

Healthcare systems adopted various strategies to minimize the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on clinical outcomes of patients with symptomatic severe aortic stenosis referred for transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). We aimed to compare baseline characteristics and procedural and clinical outcomes of patients who underwent TAVI during COVID-19 surge periods with those of patients who underwent TAVI during the nonsurge and prepandemic periods. In the prospective Bern TAVI registry, the pandemic period was divided into surge and nonsurge periods on the basis of the mean number of occupied beds in the intensive care unit in each month and matched with 11months immediately preceding the pandemic. A total of 1,069 patients underwent TAVI between April 1, 2019 and December 31, 2021. Patients who underwent TAVI during surge periods had a higher surgical risk (Society of Thoracic Surgeons predicted risk of mortality) than that of patients who underwent TAVI during nonsurge and prepandemic periods. Diagnosis-to-procedure time (in days) was longer for patients who underwent TAVI during the surge period than during the nonsurge and prepandemic periods (95.20 ± 121.07 vs 70.99 ± 72.25 and 60.46 ± 75.43, both p <0.001). At 30days, all-cause mortality was higher in the surge than in the nonsurge group (4.9 vs 1.1%, hazard ratio 4.68, 95% confidence interval 1.55 to 14.10, p=0.006), and in the surge than in the prepandemic group (4.9 vs 1.3%, hazard ratio 3.67, 95% confidence interval 1.34 to 10.11, p=0.012). In conclusion, TAVI during COVID-19 surge periods was associated with higher Society of Thoracic Surgeons predicted risk of mortality score, delayed procedure scheduling, and increased 30-day mortality than that of TAVI during nonsurge and prepandemic periods.

Sustainable transitions in the surfing sector. The role of risk and branding

AbstractThis paper explores a theoretical and empirical discussion of the ability of business form a particular sector to transition towards sustainability. The paper contextualises the discussion within the theoretical framework of a ‘Risk Society’ as outlined by Ulrich Beck. In particular, the paper highlights the relationship between sustainable development, and what Beck describes as the emergence of an emancipatory catastrophism. This theoretical framework is then applied to a novel approach for exploring sustainability through the process of branding ultimately highlighting an industry's receptiveness to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Uniquely, this paper challenges and expands on the narrative of branding as a discursive process that moves beyond a narrow marketing framework. Using a mixed methods approach of in‐depth observation, interviews and surveys, the paper focuses on a case study of the largest lifestyle retailer in the surf skate and snow sector. The empirical research is applied both within the case study company itself and over 300 brands in the surf skate and snow sector. Results point to a receptiveness to embedding the sustainable development goals in business models whilst highlighting the challenges that exist from both a business operation and resourcing perspective through to external factors. Furthermore, results highlight the disparity between internal business processes and the process branding. A typology is presented that highlights the relationship between business, the sustainable development goals and theoretical debates.

Evolutionary game analysis for multi-level collaborative governance under public crisis in China: From a value perception perspective.

In a risk society, the survival and development of humans are facing threats of complex and severe public crisis events. Public participation in collaborative governance (CG) of public crisis events is increasingly recognized as an important direction for the reform of the current and future emergency management system. Previous studies of CG have mainly focused on the macro level and ignored to address micro-level discussions of the behavioral strategy evolution of stakeholders. From a fresh value perception perspective, this study constructs an evolutionary game model to clarify the evolution mechanism of multi-level emergency CG. First, the value perception model is built based on Prospect Theory and Mental Accounting to optimize the traditional game matrix. Second, the evolutionary stability is analyzed to solve the system evolution law. Finally, numerical simulation is conducted in the case of Heilongjiang province, a main region of food and energy supply in China. Results showed that (1) the CG game system has a complex evolutionary path; (2) the behavior of game players is affected by perceived incomes and perceived costs; (3) compared with the reference value and the risk aversion coefficient of income accounts, game players are more sensitive to that of cost accounts; (4) enhancing the perceived value of public psychological satisfaction and government reputation is helpful for the long-term construction of CG. Overall, this study aims to highlight the potential utility of value perception in promoting effective implementations of CG and to provide new insights for the development of CG in China and other countries.

Intersectionality incarnate: A case study of civil society, social capital, and its metamorphosis

ABSTRACT This paper investigates civil society’s metamorphosis through the lens of intersectional risk theory. While numerous studies interrogate civil society’s spatiotemporal evolution, there has yet to be an analysis of how and why the Intersectional Activist has gained such prominence. The interdisciplinary nexus between intersectionality, social capital, and civil society to that of the risk discipline requires a multi-tiered methodology to map the contours of this metamorphosis. Therefore, the choice of a hermeneutically-framed, exploratory case study, supplemented by semi-structured interviews, structures the research. The results support that the Intersectional Activist is a byproduct of capitalistic, multiply-burdening institutions of oppression. However, these overlapping institutions form a pressurized moulding onto the individuals’ tabula rasa, whereby a transversal, paradigm-defiant coalition insurrects against hegemonic systems. Reactivating the five capacities of the self, knowledge, processes, agency, and power to bridge cross-sectorial mobilization, the Intersectional Activist is a direct riposte to the Precarious Risk Society. The collective has now become the connective–manifesting in the intersectional plight against systemic injustice, the Matrix of Power reactivates the capacities through an association of difference, reconstituting the nature of social capital. Within this reconstitution, the transversal activist realizes themselves in a new connective frontier, for they are intersectionality incarnate.

Epidemiology at the Bar: A Legal Proof on Causation with Cancer Epidemiological Results.

The development of natural science has revealed causal relationships that we did not know about through scientific hypotheses and verification. Therefore, given enough time, the causal relationship between the controversial toxic substances and disease outbreaks will be largely elucidated. However, in the courtroom, the judge cannot wait for that moment, and must make a legal value judgment on the causal relationship as a condition for establishing a tort. In other words, the responsibility for who will compensate for the actual damage must be attributed to which party. This study examines the evidence of epidemiological findings in today's risk society. In particular, we deal with cases where there is no way to prove a causal relationship other than epidemiological data in a lawsuit for compensation for damages caused by harmful substances such as cigarettes. This study seeks to find a way to appropriately evaluate the value of evidence by correctly interpreting and rationally utilizing the results of epidemiological studies in court through a pragmatic pluralistic approach.<br />.

Understanding user interactions and perceptions of AI risk in Singapore

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly prevalent and its application highly sophisticated. Concerns about AI's vulnerabilities and future threats have, however, long been debated among scientists and the tech community. By integrating Beck's theory of risk society with an audience-centered sense-making approach, we seek to understand the effects of AI on the general public's daily lives and their concerns when they adopt AI technology. Five focus groups with 36 participants from Singapore, a technologically advanced country, were conducted to investigate their risk perceptions of AI and AI-powered technology. We found that participants were not passive consumers of content showing up on their news feeds; indeed, some participants attempted to outsmart the algorithms. They were aware that tech companies often tweak algorithms to personalize content and drive consumers into rabbit holes. Nevertheless, despite a certain level of awareness and sporadic attempts to “outsmart” the system, many users might still be influenced by these algorithms, underscoring the extent to which consumers are often manipulated by smart tech powered by AI. We discuss the theoretical and policy implications of our findings by looking at the contextual factors.

Approach to Functionalization of Criminal Law in Risk Society

Criminal law in risk society shows the trend of functional development. The principle of criminal responsibility which is the cornerstone of the justification of punishment has broken through its dysfunction and created the theory of crime prevention, which has effectively solved the conflict between the principle of criminal responsibility and the purpose of punishment in traditional criminal law theory. Legal interest which is the core of criminal law has deviated from its original intention because of the increasingly broad scope of subsumtion. Therefore, it is the evitable way for legal interest to break through the dysfunction to maintain the principle of legal interest.

Partisipasi Stakeholders Dalam Pengelolaan Dampak Pencemaran Sungai Jenes Surakarta

This study aims to describe the various risks or vulnerabilities in the Jenes River riparian community and the participation of stakeholders in pollution management in the Jenes River. Selection of informants using purposive sampling. Data collection techniques with observation, interviews and documentation. Analysis with interactive and theoretical models using Ulrich Beck's risk society theory and Robert K Merton's functional structural theory. The results of the study show that the people on the Jenes River border are a risky community because they intersect with industrial areas that vulnerable to physical risks, social risks, and psychological risks. Participation by the Environment Agency, River Basin Center, Community-Based Disaster Preparedness, Kampoeng Batik Laweyan Development Forum, and Community in managing the impact of Pollution on Jenes River has been analyzed using structural-functional theory through functions and dysfunctions, showing that management flow is running according to hope, but has not resolved the problem of Pollution in the Jenes River because there are still many dysfunctions that occur in each institutional system. Thus, an effort made through this functional structure must continue to work to bridge the interests and cooperation between primary and secondary stakeholders in managing Jenes River pollution.

Summer Storms, Food and Representations of the Climate Crisis in Brit Bildøen’s Sju Dagar I August and Agnar Lirhus’s Liten Kokebok

"Summer Storms, Food, and Representations of the Climate Crisis in Brit Bildøen’s Sju dagar i august and Agnar Lirhus’s Liten kokebok. This article discusses representations of climate change in contemporary realistic fiction from Norway. I first focus my attention on the depiction of extreme weather and “risk society” in Brit Bildøen’s Sju dagar i august (Seven days in august, 2014) and then explore the concept of “ecological masculinities” and expressions of care in Agnar Lirhus’s Liten kokebok (Little cookbook, 2016). Although the two novels I discuss thematise climatic disruptions in different ways, they are similarly intertwining characters’ experiences of the natural world with personal feelings of loss and grief. I thus suggest that climate change imagery in Norwegian realistic fiction is often interwoven with an affective dimension. Finally, the aim of this article is to illustrate how the climate crisis has pervaded Norwegian literature, while providing some examples of how texts that lay outside of what is typically considered the cli-fi novel have the potential to engage with this theme. Keywords: climate change narratives, contemporary Norwegian fiction, risk society, extreme weather, ecological masculinities, care, Brit Bildøen, Agnar Lirhus"

Covering the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as the Recovery Olympics After Fukushima

This article examines how major Japanese national newspapers - t he Asahi Shimbun, the Mainichi Shimbun, the Yomiuri Shimbun, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, and the Sankei Shimbun - discussed the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as the “Recovery Olympics” in relation to radioactive materials as a key post-Fukushima environmental contamination issue. Although many scholars have critically examined the concept of the Recovery Olympics in the context of the Great East Japan Earthquake, Tsunami, and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, this study employs Beck’s risk society and Boykoff’s celebration capitalism theories to distinguish between the recovery discourses of the earthquake and tsunami versus the Fukushima disaster. It then explores the media’s depiction of the Recovery Olympics in relation to radioactive contamination. Using Fairclough’s dialectical-relational approch to critical discourse analysis, this study demonstrates that the leading Japanese national newspapers localized the issue of post-Fukushima environmental contamination within Fukushima Prefecture, thereby obscuring broader impacts for the Olympics. Additionally, it uncovers how these newspapers emphasized safety standards, transforming post-Fukushima environmental contamination below such standards into a symbol legitimizing the Recovery Olympics.

KETIDAKPASTIAN GOJEK DALAM DISKURSUS MASYARAKAT RESIKO

Modern society is faced with risks inherent in its life. This risk comes from the technological uncertainty developments, especially in transportation modes. Gojek be a solution to the uncertainty several aspects by conventional transportation modes. This study uses a phenomenological approach, which places phenomena from the actors point of view and uses the risk society theory introduced by Ulrich Beck as an analytical tool. The concept used is reflective modernity and the boomerang effect that drivers and customers face respectively as users of the Gojek application. Informants are Gojek users consisting of customers as well as drivers. This research used interview, observation, and documentation techniques as primary data, while the secondary data used literature study techniques. Based on the results, it was found that several certainty factors were obtained by Gojek customers, including time, convenience, cost and security. This factor is referred to 'reflective modernity', where this factor becomes a reflection on the uncertainty of conventional transportation. However, for the record, security is also a risk if the goods ordered through Gojek are taken away by the driver. On the other hand, Gojek drivers get uncertainty risk factors, such as fictitious orders, and service discrepancies with customer ratings. This condition is referred to 'boomerang effect' where the risk returns to the main actor. As a solution, the company provides a feature to deal with fictitious orders and a rating feature by users.

Ketidakpastian Gojek Dalam Diskursus Masyarakat Resiko

Modern society is faced with risks inherent in its life. This risk comes from the technological uncertainty developments, especially in transportation modes. Gojek be a solution to the uncertainty several aspects by conventional transportation modes. This study uses a phenomenological approach, which places phenomena from the actors point of view and uses the risk society theory introduced by Ulrich Beck as an analytical tool. The concept used is reflective modernity and the boomerang effect that drivers and customers face respectively as users of the Gojek application. Informants are Gojek users consisting of customers as well as drivers. This research used interview, observation, and documentation techniques as primary data, while the secondary data used literature study techniques. Based on the results, it was found that several certainty factors were obtained by Gojek customers, including time, convenience, cost and security. This factor is referred to 'reflective modernity', where this factor becomes a reflection on the uncertainty of conventional transportation. However, for the record, security is also a risk if the goods ordered through Gojek are taken away by the driver. On the other hand, Gojek drivers get uncertainty risk factors, such as fictitious orders, and service discrepancies with customer ratings. This condition is referred to 'boomerang effect' where the risk returns to the main actor. As a solution, the company provides a feature to deal with fictitious orders and a rating feature by users.

Revisiting the Geography of Globalisation in the Covid-19 Pandemic using Risk Theory

My review paper is part of Covid-IAS Project, funded by National Research Council of Thailand. The paper focuses on the geography of globalisation in the Covid -19 pandemic. I employ Ulrich Beck’s concept of risk society to critically examine geography. Although Beck is not a geography theorist, his theory can be used extensively and alternatively to study the geography of globalisation. By drawing upon Beck, I argue that the geography of globalisation in the context of Covid -19 displays forms of dependency upon the politics of knowledge about Covid -19 vaccines. With the production of knowledge, the vaccines have caused various forms of dependency, including global dependency (external knowledge about the effectiveness of the vaccines and their side-effects), regional dependency and international dependency (the EU and its member states), the interplay between global dependency and international dependency (COVAX), and the emergence of the nation states as regional production hubs (AstraZeneca vaccine). Although Beck’s theory enables us to critically investigate the geography of globalisation, Beck ignores the significance of the nation states in globalised risk situation. In contrast with Beck, I suggest that nation states have still played important roles in world risk society, especially in the context of Covid -19.

Precautionary Principle as a Criterion of Accusation in the Criminal Liability of Crimes against the Environment

This research involves a documentary review regarding different theoretical and doctrinal postulates, according to which the affinity and interference of the precautionary principle as a criterion for imputing criminal liability for environmental damage in Colombia are gauged. In order to elaborate on this topic, it was necessary to make a theoretical assessment of a risk society and how the legal doctrine has valued risk as a criterion of criminal accusation. In this research, we provided a description and legal analysis of the precautionary principle in environmental matters and defined the parameters under which this principle is measured. In addition, the development and configuration of the environment as a protected legal right, its classification as a fundamental right, and its interference with the right to life and personal integrity are briefly described. In short, it was necessary to assess and question the scope of malice and its components within the accusation of criminal titles in the scenarios of a risk society and its link with the environmental precautionary principle. All these issues were addressed using descriptive and bibliographic research with a qualitative approach. The criminal liability of those who transgress the principle described above and put the protected legal assets related to the environment at potential risk was analyzed from an objective legal point of view. Likewise, we conducted an in-depth evaluation of the constitutional environmental protection category and the state duties concerning this constitutional mandate.

The Model, Dilemma and Outlet of Resilience Governance of Grassroots Community from the Perspective of Risk Society

During the period of social governance transformation, China and even the world have entered a high-risk stage. In such a risk community, the community, as the basic unit of social organism, is a key link and important support for stabilizing social order and improving social governance in the face of sudden major risk events. From the perspective of community resilience, it not only undertakes the interdisciplinary mission of Community Governance, but also broadens the resilient governance pattern of combining hardness and flexibility in the community. However, the current community risk prevention and control in China also exposes the shortcomings and problems in the resilience governance of grassroots communities in terms of process resilience, structural resilience, psychological resilience, and technological resilience. In view of this, in the new risk society of the post pandemic era, it is necessary to enhance the diversification of community resilience governance entities, strengthen emergency management mechanisms, cultivate citizens' awareness and ability to respond to risks, accelerate the construction of smart communities, and gradually achieve normal and good governance of communities in high-risk societies.