Risk Society

Epochs of Modernity

In general, the concept of modernity has been employed as a shorthand diagnosis for a broad set of social relations and processes that typify Western societies. Beck's understanding of modernization is representative of established observations of this period. Historically, modernization refers to the organization of social life that emerged from Western Europe during the 17th century. Technological advancements in many areas, including transportation, communications, and weaponry enabled early modern nations to establish colonizing empires. From the epicenter of Western Europe, modern practices radiated outward, conflicting with and ultimately subsuming, or juxtaposing, traditional forms of social organization.

Among others, Beck tells us that the processes of modernization are built on the Enlightenment notions of progress and scientific certainty, which holds a hegemonic position in creating the knowledge on which progress is founded. During this time, humanity is raised above other species, separating them from the natural global processes, to which previous generations of humanity had been bound. Centralized human settlement and intense urbanization produced new forms of social interaction and innovation, giving legitimacy to the purity of the scientific process.

Even in the latter stages of the 19th century, following intense industrialization when issues such as environmental despoliation, disease, and hunger were being witnessed on a massive scale, science was, paradoxically, still empowered to solve these problems. Built on this faith in science, unitary political structures in the form of nation-states developed policies that jostled for increasing access to, and control of, the world's resources. Moreover, there was the increasing success of a capitalist market system that was a driving force of political philosophy in the modern age. Here, the acquisition of wealth was abstracted from its environmental base through the development of a monetary system.

For Beck, however, the 21st century's recognition of the different forms of risks caused by unfettered scientific development and its inappropriate application by political structures was creating space for another form of modernity. According to Beck, modernity had turned inward and was questioning its most central tenets, creating a stage of reflexive modernity. Reflexive modernity is a complex collection of processes operating at many different levels within society. Reflexive modernity is a recursive turning of modernity on itself, in essence becoming its own theme.

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