lesson 16

• Risk society


  The manner in which modern society organizes in response to risks
• According to Giddens, a risk society


  A society increasingly preoccupied with the "future" and "safety", which generates the notion of risk
• According to Beck, a risk society


  A systematic way of dealing with hazards and insecurities induced and introduced by modernization itself
• Two types of risks

  • External risks
  • Manufactured risks
• External risks


  Risks produced by non-human forces
• External risks

  • Famine
  • Volcanic Eruption
  • Storm
  • Tsunami
• Manufactured risks


  Risks produced due to human activities, result of the modernization process itself
• Manufactured risks


  • Pollution
  • Hybristic Diseases
  • Crimes
• The risk is, to a large degree, being produced by sources of wealth in modern society
• Industry and its side effects are producing a wide range of hazardous, even deadly, consequences for society and, as a result of globalization for the world as a whole
• Developed: Globalism


  We should protect the environment because its degradation affects all of us!
• Developing: Globalization


  Protecting the environment will limit our economic growth! Developed countries are now calling for environmental protection... now that they have exploited majority of the world's resources!
• Risks are centered in poor nations, while the rich nations are able to push many risks as far away as possible. Furthermore, rich nations profit from the risks they produce
• Example of rich nations profiting from risks


  • Developed countries, in their call to preserve the environment, profits by producing goods that they package as "good for the environment" (e.g. Eco Bags, Metallic Straws, Organic Tissues... etc.). While these developed countries profit from the illusion that they are selling, this does not address the real issue at hand.
• Boomerang effect


  According to Beck, the widespread risks contain a "Boomerang Effect" - individuals producing the risks will also be exposed to them
• Example of boomerang effect


  • Wealthy capitalists whose capital is largely responsible for creating pollution will also have to suffer when, for example, the contaminants produced by their factories seep into the sea, river, or the water supply
• Risks do not only affect certain social classes or places. Risk is not biased and can affect everybody no matter your class. Nobody is free from risks
• According to Beck, in Classical Industrial Societies, nature and society were separated, but in Advanced Industrial Societies, they are deeply intertwined


  Today "nature is society and society is also nature". Thus, nature has been politicized with the result that natural scientists, like social scientists, have had their work politicized
• Examples of nature and society being intertwined

  • Dengvaxia issue in the Philippines where Doctors argue on the truthfulness of the claim that it caused the death of several children. Global Warming (Inconvenient Truth) in the US is perceived as a propaganda of Al Gore to win the Presidential seat.
• Reflexive introspection


  The idea that as a society examines itself, it in turn changes itself in the process
• While risks have several disadvantages, according to Giddens, risks should be approached positively. Risk needs to be disciplined, but active risk-taking is a core element of a dynamic economy and an innovative society
• Example of positive risk-taking


  • The technologies we have and enjoy today are all products of the "risk-taking" attitude of society
• Panopticon


  A type of institutional building and a system of control designed by Bentham to allow all prisoners of an institution to be observed by a single security guard, without the inmates being able to tell whether they are being watched
• Although it is physically impossible for the single guard to observe all the inmates' cells at once, the fact that the inmates cannot know when they are being watched means that they are motivated to act as though they are being watched at all times
• Thus, the inmates are effectively compelled to regulate their own behavior
• Modern day panopticon


  Modern society addressed some of the modern risks by creating modern-day panopticons, but such have unintended consequences which resulted in the creation of more risks
• Examples of modern day panopticons


  • Having mobile phones with cameras, installing CCTVS, and the creation of Online Accounts
• Managers and high-ranking officials need not supervise their rank-and-file employees physically. Personal information are now under surveillance, not only by the government, but also by corporations that make enormous amounts of money capitalizing on it