Renowned sociologist Ulrich Beck has died

Renowned German sociologist Ulrich Beck, famous for creating the term "risk society" (Riskiogesellschaft) has died at the age of 70. His books have been translated into 35 languages.

Deutsche Welle - Jan. 3, 2015

According to the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung on Saturday, Beck passed away on January 1 following a heart attack.
Ulrich Beck became one of the world's most famous and most quoted sociologists in recent decades, with his 1986 work Risk Society (Riskiogesellschaft), a bestseller which was translated into 35 languages. His works have focused on the challenges of our times including climate change, terrorism and financial crises.
In a 2012 essay for news magazine Der Spiegel, the politically-engaged academic described German Chancellor Angela Merkel as "Merkiavelli" in relation to her dominant role and policies on European-bailouts.
Born in May 1944 in what was then the town of Stolp in Pomerania, now Slupsk in Poland, Beck grew up in Hanover and studied sociology, philosophy, psychology and political science in Munich in the 1960s and 70s.
Following short stints at several German universities, Ulrich Beck took up the role of Professor of Sociology at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) in 1992. He held several other academic positions, including being visiting professor in the sociology department of the London School of Economics since 1997.

A Summary of Ulrich Beck - Risk Society
http://www.nextreformation.com/wp-admin/resources/risk-society.pdf

Critical Theory of World Risk Society - Ulrich Beck Online
http://www.ulrichbeck.net-build.net/uploads/constellations.pdf  

My Critique of Beck As a PhD Student
Tugrul Keskin -
Contemporary Political Theory-5214 Journal-6 Virginia Tech University
October 7, 2004

In his book, Risk Society, Ulrich Beck asserts that new modernity taking place today in the Western world and the accompanying process of social change is a continuation of industrial modernity. Beck’s understanding of modernity is very similar to Habermas’s definition of modernity as an ‘unfinished project.’ He defines three stages of social change: pre-modernity, simple modernity and the last stage, which he calls reflexive modernity. Beck asserts that “just as modernization dissolved the structure of feudal society in the nineteenth century and produced the industrial society, modernization today is dissolving industrial society and another modernity is coming into being. (10)    

According to this work, reflexive modernity is the third stage or periodization of social change. In this third stage, there has been a transformation of social structure from a predominantly class-based social structure to individualization, he claims. He distinguishes the industrial society from the risk society on the basis of differentiation between class and the individual. According to Marxist theory, class is the main element, and history is the history of a struggle between the bourgeoisie and proletarian classes. In contrast to this view, Beck argues that the role of class in the risk society has been disappearing from the social scene and individualization has been at the center of the social structure in this new process of modernity.           

According to Beck, the risk society reminds us that globalization shapes our world, social structure and social spheres equally. In his theory, there has been a standardization of the individual in modern society today.  Unlike in earlier stages of modernity, such as took place in industrial modernity, individualization shapes our social world, from our daily lives to science.           

His theory may be applicable to Western societies, but cultural differences also shape the new modernity so that there can be no single definition of modernity. According to other theorists such as Edwards Said, multiple modernity’s occur in the world today. The reflection and character of modernity in Europe is different than in Africa or China. Beck ignores cultural differences such as this in his theory. His argument disregards the role that culture plays in the new modernization project. However, cultural differences play a very critical role      

The consequences of reflexive modernization involves the process of disintegration of society. Moreover, the new modernity creates small islands within one society; that are independent from each other. This is the individualization process, unlike earlier societal structures. Entertainment is the most important technological factor that helps the individualization process to produce independent islands within the society. Beck describes this process as ‘self-confrontation of modernity.’ He argues that the labor market is the motor of individualization. Education, mobility and competition are three dimensions of the labor market.                      

According to Beck, “risk are defined as the probabilities of physical harm due to given technological or other process.” (4) Risk in modern society is distributed evenly among the members of society.  His risk discourse seems to be inaccurate however, because risk is not in fact distributed equally. Lower-income classes do not have the same risk as high-income groups or the power elite. Individuals also have different level of risk. For instance, at the individual level, an academician does not confront the same risk as steel worker confronts. At the more macro global level, each country has a different set of risks than another one. The US has different threats because of its level of power and wealth than the Former Soviet Union has. In short, risk is not distributed evenly, either at the individual level or the at the global level. Risk distribution is actually a highly unequal phenomenon, unlike the argument proposed by Beck. There is no single type of modernity that is capable to explain social change and modernization in the World today. Arguably, Beck’s definition of the risk society may be applicable to the Western world, and more specifically, mainly to Western Europe and North America. However globalization does not have the same influence on other parts of the world that it does on these countries.

His theory of reflexive modernization states that knowledge is reflexive and cannot be understood in the light of scientific inquiry alone. Self-reflection is integral to the characterization of any social event of phenomena. Beck is describing science as one of the producers of meaning or as a sender of the message. Meaning both shapes and is shaped by modern science. Accordingly, it both shapes, defines and provides solutions to the risks inherent in modern social life. It also opens new markets of scientific exploration, by what it has done.  

Science is not able to provide explanations for social events. But it is necessary in understanding the context in which those events took place. This is what Beck refers to as the ‘demonopolization of scientific knowledge.’ It has become equally important to understand the context that science has developed in, as it has to understand the solutions to common problems that it provides. A definition of truth must arise from an understanding both of the science and its context, as well as factors that have acted to influence its findings in that context.

The danger with this scientific age which we are in, that Beck refers to as the ‘Scientific civilization’, is that whatever the direction it is headed in on its path to new discoveries is a direction that it will continue in. Whether this is for the overall good of society or not. It will continue to duplicate its efforts, and  its mistakes. It is not able to separate itself from past mistakes but builds upon them, and therefore distributes both further errors and risk.