The Risk Society Revisited: Social Theory and Risk Governance

4. Reflexive Modernization Theory and Risk: The Work of Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens

4 Reflexive Modernization Theory and Risk The Work of Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better. — Ralph Waldo Emerson (1909), Journals, November 11, 1842 The Era of Reflexive Modernization M odernity is typically defined as the evolutionary outcome of a transition from traditional forms of social and political organization accompanying the industrialization and urbanization of societies. The sine qua non of modernization is a change in worldview at the most basic level of human thought. It begins with the rejection of life as a cyclical process. In its place is the notion of change—often change that is normatively judged as progress . Modernization, whether seen simply as change or more systemically as a process of evolutionary change, is permeated with an overarching worldview, elaborated in Chapter 3, that emphasizes the role of rationality in legitimizing social institutions and actions. An influential theory in this era of advanced modernization is reflexive modernization theory (RMT). Scholars within the reflexive modernization tradition endeavor to explain the seismic changes at the end of the twentieth century that launched us into this era of heightened or advanced modernity. It is also an era punctuated with a radicalization of modernity’s core institutions. This era, with its stream of unintended and unanticipated negative technological and ecological consequences, is one of individual, organizational, and institutional tumult. The institutions of advanced modernity have attempted to harness this tumult with new systems of rationality, perhaps even hyper-rationality. Reflexive modernization scholars argue that the hyper-rationality of modernity (i.e., instrumental rationality , efficiency, justice through economic growth, and steady improvement of 70 Risk and Social Theory­ individual living conditions through scientific and technical progress) has lost its legitimizing power. To borrow from Max Weber, it also has resulted in disenchantment . The emergent development of disenchantment has been caused by several developments within the transition from simple modernity to our current era of reflexive modernity (cf. Knight and Warland 2005; Lash 2000; Renn 2008a, 2008b, 2008c; Zinn and Taylor-Gooby 2006: 33ff.). The disenchantment is reflected in four separate but complementary social processes: • Dominance of negative side effects. The promises of modernization— progress and greater welfare—have been undermined by the experience of negative side effects such as environmental degradation, the introduction of unprecedented risks, inequitable distribution of resources, and a flattening of life satisfaction. • Individualization of lifestyles and social careers. Individuals have more occupational and lifestyle options than ever before but lack a collective identity (such as social class), social orientation, and ontological security when faced with behavioral or moral conflicts. • Pluralization of knowledge camps and values. Contemporary socie­ ties are characterized by antithetical systems of competing knowledge claims, moral judgment codes, and behavioral orientations. • Absence of overarching objectives and goals. All collective actions are challenged as being driven by political choices that are incongruent with individuals’ beliefs, values, or convictions. This leads to the need for more legitimization, but the reservoir of legitimation may be too empty to fill this role. Reflexive modernization theory, which attempts to explain these societal changes, emerged in the 1980s and 1990s, largely through the scholarship of the German sociologist Ulrich Beck and the British sociologist Anthony Giddens . Prior to this, Beck had been an obscure theoretician of education, while Giddens already had an international reputation as a theorist covering a considerable range of thought. Shortly after his qualification as a university lecturer in 1979, Beck took over the editorship of the sociological journal Soziale Welt (Social World) in 1980. Beck’s contribution to RMT began with his publication of Risiko­ gesellschaft: Auf dem Weg in eine andere Moderne (Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity) in January 1986, which described the era of high modernity as the risk society. The thesis, that all citizens were threatened by mega-risks that knew neither class nor geographic boundaries, could not have been timelier. The worst nuclear power plant accident in history had occurred on April 26, 1986, a meltdown of reactor number four at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukraine (then the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic). The substance and tone of his treatise immediately resonated with a European public disillusioned with experts’ pronouncements of security that were empty of meaning. Reflexive Modernization Theory and Risk 71 Remarkably uncommon for academic books, Risk Society was on the bestseller list in Germany within six months and elevated Beck as a grand theorist of...