Does the term 'risk society' capture important features of recent Essay

Does the term 'risk society' capture important features of recent social changes - Essay Example al pollution, and new terrorism which shape the social changes such as increased social accountability, availability of information and most importantly a general paranoia within the society. ‘Risk can be defined in the risk society as a systematic way of dealing with hazards and insecurities induced and introduced by modernization itself’ (Beck 1992: 21). The most palpable point about risk is the main difference between risk and disaster. Risk does not necessarily mean disaster. Risk is actually the anticipation of disaster. Therefore it can be said that risks exist in an everlasting state of virtuality, and only become ‘relevant’ to the degree that they are likely. Risks are not ‘real’; they are in fact ‘becoming real’. ‘As soon as risks become real say an act of terrorism destroying the financial heart of New York - they cease to be risks and become catastrophes. Risks have already moved elsewhere: to the anticipation of further attacks, economic decline, or worldwide war.’ (Loon 2002) There has been a transformation in the awareness of risk by society. We have evolved to a society’ where what is significant is not whether the number or nature of risks have increased in their gravity, but that people feel that this is so and react accordingly. Obsessive worrying about ‘risk’ in contemporary social life has little to do with the actual frequency of life-threatening dangers. On the level of a single lifetime, i.e. in terms of life expectancy and level of freedom from grave disease, people in the modern societies are in a much more privileged position than were most in bygone eras. An imposing list follows of the ways in which the material security has been improved in modern societies; even so it is balanced by a list of fresh risks: terrorism, motor accidents, drugs, environmental pollution, etc. Both can be seen as results of the modernization. In terms of basic life security, nonetheless, the risk-reducing elements seem