The Sociology Book

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we face, we need these experts to
help measure, calculate, and make
sense of them for us.

Making risks meaningful
Beck notes the important role
played by so-called “new social
movements” in raising public
awareness of risk. For instance,
Greenpeace, an independent
organization committed to
environmental protection, runs
many high-profile publicity
campaigns to draw attention
to the environmental risks both
caused and downplayed by
corporations and governments.
The media feeds on public
anxieties about risk, claims Beck.
To increase sales, news providers
latch on to stories of corporate or
institutional failures to adequately
manage risk, or sensationalize
stories of the hidden threats posed
by technological developments.
While ultimately self-serving,
Beck sees this as a positive thing
because it helps develop public
consciousness about risks and
promote open debate. The media
makes risks visible and meaningful
for people by giving abstract risks

a powerful symbolic form. For

example, the consequences of

rising global temperatures over

many decades into the future can

feel slightly unreal and abstract.

However, “then-and-now” imagery

of retreating glaciers, or footage

of polar bears perched perilously

on top of dissolving chunks of

ice, delivers a powerful message

about the immediacy of the risks

the world faces.

Among the wider social

consequences of living in a

risk society is a change in the

nature of inequality. In the past,

wealthier individuals could protect

ULRICH BECK

themselves from risks, perhaps

by paying more to live in a safer

community or by having private

insurance to provide better medical

care. However, people can no longer

buy their way out of many modern-

day risks. Up to a point, someone

could spend their way out of one

risk by eating more expensive

organic food to avoid the perceived

hazards of industrial pesticides.

Similarly, wealthier nations might

avoid the polluting effects of heavy

industry by outsourcing production

to rapidly developing nations such

as China. Sooner or later, however,

these risks “boomerang” back.

Here, Beck emphasizes the third

quality of risk—that it does not

respect boundaries of space and

time. Wealth itself provides no

certain way to avoid risk—the

affluent West cannot ultimately

escape the consequences of global

warming that will be exacerbated

by China’s industrialization.

Globalized fears and hopes

In his more recent work on the

concepts of “world risk society” and

“cosmopolitanism,” Beck argues

that the process of globalization—

Today’s technological societies create risks that may
be unknown or almost impossible to quantify. According
to Beck, when faced with such unknowable risks, we have
three main responses—denial, apathy, or transformation.

Denial

Behaving as if

the risks do not

exist or are small.

This is a common

reaction of many

corporations and

governments.

Apathy

Acknowledging

the risks may exist,

but doing nothing

in response.

Transformation

Taking collective,

global action to

live positively

under the shadow

of risk—the idea of

cosmopolitanism.

Reduced to a formula,

wealth is hierarchic,

smog is democratic.

Ulrich Beck