Risk Society

Introduction

Ulrich Beck, then a sociologist at Bamberg, finished the manuscript shortly before the Chernobyl reactor disaster of April 1986 and added a preface referring to it. The first part argues that in advanced industrial societies the logic of distributing wealth is overlaid by a logic of distributing risks: radiation, toxins and pollution are produced by modernisation itself, often cannot be perceived without scientific expertise and do not stop at class boundaries. The second part describes individualisation, as people are released from the ties of class, family and gender roles and must shape their own biographies. The third deals with “reflexive modernisation”, in which modern society is confronted with its own consequences. The book reached a large readership; the English translation appeared in 1992.