The nature of risk society

As early as the 1980s and 1990s, German social scientist Beck proposed the concept of "risk society" to describe the tremendous changes in post-industrial society. Baker defines risk as “the systematic way of dealing with the dangers and insecurities that modernization itself creates.” He believes that risk is different from danger. Human beings are often passive and helpless in the face of danger, while risk depends to a large extent on people's understanding and decision-making. Only when people consciously explore the future and try to control or avoid unforeseen consequences can we talk about risk. Risk is also different from disaster. It is not damage that has occurred but represents a possibility and potential. Different from these two, risk also has a positive meaning. It not only carries dangers and may lead to disasters, but also means opportunities and hopes. The special connotation of risk determines that a risk society has the following main basic characteristics:

Diversity of risks. In the process of human beings trying to control nature and change tradition with the help of technology, various risk forms are continuously produced, causing the manifestations of modern risks to continue to become diversified, involving many fields such as environment, politics, society, economy, and technology. . According to WEF's latest assessment, the environment will be the core of the future global risk pattern, with extreme weather being the most likely to occur, and the existence and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction being considered the risk with the greatest impact on the world.

Relevance of risks. Risks in a risk society do not exist in isolation, but are interrelated and even superimposed on each other. The "butterfly effect" of a certain risk in a local area may trigger a huge chain reaction globally and trigger risks in other areas. WEF's survey shows that structurally high unemployment or underemployment is most closely related to intense social unrest, while factors such as financial risks, climate change, refugee crisis, Syrian civil war, and technological innovation are likely to increase national conflict, thus exacerbating geopolitical risks.

Uncertainty and unpredictability of risks. 2016 is known as the "black swan" year. Events such as Brexit, Trump's election, and the failure of the Italian referendum shocked the world and caught it off guard. People are surprised to find that analysis and prediction based on past knowledge or experience seem to be invalid. 2017 International politics has become more complicated and confusing. How will Trump govern? Where will the general elections in many European countries go? Can the war on terrorism against ISIS be won? Will the North Korean nuclear issue continue to ferment? The past year has also been marked by data theft, cyber attacks and hackers. It has been a year of high activity, and the potential negative impacts of artificial intelligence and robotics are currently uncertain, but WEF experts estimate that they may be the primary factor in amplifying economic, technological and geopolitical risks.

The class nature of risk. All members of a risk society, whether rich or poor, will be affected by risks. This seems to create an illusion that "everyone is equal before risk." Baker pointedly pointed out that risk distribution, like wealth, is dependent on class, but in an inverted way "wealth is concentrated at the top, while risk is concentrated at the bottom." Compared with the helplessness of the poor in the face of risks, the losses of the rich are often much smaller, and they may even benefit from the risks. It can be seen that risk has not eliminated classes, but instead aggravated the gap between rich and poor and class differentiation. The social division shown in this US election is a manifestation of this feature.

The global nature of risk. Interdependence and globalization allow risks to spread across national borders. In the current information age, the widespread application of new media such as the Internet and smartphones ensures that once a risk occurs, it spreads around the world at an unprecedented speed and is continuously amplified in the process of dissemination. Therefore, risk society means global risk, and its main effect is to create a "different world" or "imagined risk community". But at the same time, risks have also shown a trend of "de-globalization" or "anti-globalization". Global risks force governments to rely on the power of nation-states to avoid risks, tend to be responsible only to their own voters and domestic markets, shirk international responsibilities, and even abandon international mechanisms that are not beneficial to them. Trump’s “America First” philosophy and his decision to withdraw from the TPP can be seen as prominent reflections of this trend.