Urgent need for the consequences of social modernization ~ help everyone

Risk society is a new topic with the development of modernization and globalization. In the increasingly prosperous modern society, its risk characteristics and the high risk of China society in the accelerated transition period urgently require us to strengthen the research on risk society. From the perspective of international relations and risk society, this paper points out that the emergence of risk society has a complex and profound background, and it is showing a trend of normalization day by day. As far as its manifestation and influence are concerned, the impact of risk society on human society is profound, comprehensive and inevitable. Our government and society should pay attention to the emergence of this problem and strive to establish an effective prevention and response mechanism.

Keywords: risk social background, social roots, manifestations, prevention and response

First of all, the questions raised

As we all know, in the long history of the development of human society, every major invention and progress of human beings is always accompanied by struggles with various evil forces. Looking back on the social progress in the 20th century, although human beings have made rapid development under the theme of modernization and created a constantly enriched material world, modernity, like a double-edged sword, has brought many negative consequences that cannot be underestimated to the development of human society, such as the increasingly tense relationship between man and nature, which has been profoundly expounded by researchers [1], so it is unnecessary to elaborate here. However, more events and signs show that with the improvement of industrialization and modernization and the development of global economic integration, the status and role of international cities, in particular, have become increasingly prominent. While people enjoy all kinds of conveniences and fashions brought by modern high technology, our society and city have not become relaxed because of modernization. On the contrary, the higher the degree of modernization, the denser the population and the wider the application of high technology, the worse their anti-war ability seems to be. Excessive dependence on modernization will lead to computer virus or circuit blockage, which may lead to unpredictable and serious consequences. Our society and our modernization are becoming extremely fragile, which is one of them.

Secondly, when the tide of modernization is rising all over the world and global economy and politics seem to be developing towards integration, people living all over the world have to face the fact that there are many irreparable value conflicts between traditional civilization and modern tool behavior; Due to religious beliefs, national traditions and regional differences, ethnic and religious issues are becoming increasingly acute; The destruction of global ecological environment and resources leads to annual climate anomalies and many unpredictable environmental disasters. And the prevalence of terrorism, the threat of nuclear containment and so on. In every corner of the world, it can be said that it is full of all kinds of crises, and a worldwide problem-risk society is coming to us, and it is more and more obvious to present a normal state and become a realistic problem that people can't avoid.

Third, from the domestic situation, in recent years, with the drastic transformation of China's economy and society, some structural and deep-seated problems have not been completely solved, and we are still in a new period of social instability. Its outstanding performance is: the overall economic restructuring has not been completed; Every year, the pressure of new labor force employment and a large number of unemployed people re-employment is serious; Urban-rural differences and regional differences are prominent; The problem of agriculture, countryside and farmers has not yet found a reasonable and effective way out; The continuous expansion of vulnerable groups and the dissatisfaction caused by the breeding and spread of corruption all indicate that social tension is still expanding due to the simultaneous effect of economic expansion and social transformation, and these factors are likely to evolve into the fuse of social unrest under the inducement of some events. Internationally, because of the prevalence of terrorism, various separatist forces and hostile forces will not die out, which also determines that our development path will not be smooth. How to deal with emergencies quickly and deal with major disasters reasonably and effectively will be a long-term problem.

Second, the meaning and characteristics of risk society

What is a risk society? At present, because people's understanding of risk society has just started, there is still a lack of profound analysis of its occurrence and existence mechanism. Generally speaking, there is no consistent definition. According to the relevant literature, there are several expressions of the concept of risk society at present: one thinks that the so-called risk society refers to the social characteristics different from the early industrial society due to new technologies and globalization, such as delocalization and embeddedness, which basically refers to a consequence of modernity [2]. Another view is that it refers to the crisis state of modern society due to drastic social changes, such as the growth of totalitarianism, racial discrimination, polarization between the rich and the poor, and lack of nationality [3]. There is also a view that risk society refers to social disasters that may be triggered or triggered by some local or unexpected events, such as nuclear crisis and financial crisis [4]. For the above statement, although the words used in these expressions are different and the focus of description is different, their directions are basically the same, that is, the "risk" here represents the influence and value relationship of the development and change of something on the subject on the one hand, and a potential state of modern society on the other hand, indicating a social tension in modern society and the crisis degree of this tension. This kind of tension and crisis exists in the structural system of society, flooding all aspects of society, and is finally reflected through the organizational form and life style of society.

As a state of tension in modern society, risk society generally has the following characteristics:

1. Risk society is a common social phenomenon. It reflects not only the problems in a certain region and a certain field, but also the individual feelings of some people. It is the same problem that human beings encounter in the process of modernization and globalization, and it is a collective reflection with universality. Understanding and paying attention to the risk society is actually an awakening to our own survival and development. Risks and disasters that may be triggered or triggered can be adjusted and improved through people's active prevention and active correction practices.

2. Risk society is a social crisis. Risk society is the result of interweaving social contradictions and the accumulation and development of various natural and social tensions. The famous ecological philosopher Sachse once summarized it as "ecological confrontation" in his book "Ecological Philosophy", which means the energy release caused by ecological chaos [5]. In a risky society, due to the frequent occurrence of various emergencies, man-made crises account for a large proportion. Therefore, the occurrence of the crisis is unpredictable, there is no so-called rules of the game, and it is extremely difficult to prevent and control it.

3. Social risks are closely related to the accumulation and expansion of social wealth. Social risk is directly proportional to the speed and scale of economic development. The more frequent economic activities, the more intense competition, the most likely to lead to conflicts of interest, and the resulting social tension and social risks will also increase.

This kind of risk and crisis is extremely destructive. It can be global, local, or in some specific areas. The crisis may be cyclical, secondary or persistent, but in any case, once it is formed, it may cause the failure of social information transmission, the distortion of market price signals, the threat to people's lives and property safety, and even cause social panic, disorder and even social disintegration. It may also cause some chain reactions.

Third, the social roots of the risk society

The understanding of risk society is still a new field at present, and its research is mainly based on some empirical observations and discoveries. Ulrici, a German anthropologist and sociologist, is the first person to do this research in the world. Ulrich beck. 1987 published an article entitled "The Shock of Anthropology: An Outline of Chernobyl and Risk Society" [6], which used the concept of risk society for the first time. 1987- 1992 after a long-term follow-up study of the nuclear accident at Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the former Soviet Union, he pointed out that for many countries in the world today, due to globalization and increasingly extensive social problems, some seemingly local or accidental events actually have a certain function system, and they are likely to lead to some major social disasters under the guidance of some factors. Ethnic or religious conflicts between regions may lead to the outbreak of war; A certain currency fluctuation will cause a global financial crisis. Accordingly, he put forward the problem of risk society, and pointed out that social risk is a social problem accompanied by some inappropriate and uncoordinated development of modern society. The development of modern social system and its global expansion; The so-called collective defense strategy of modern countries; Rampant religious extremism can be regarded as an important dark side of modernity, and totalitarian rule and economic hegemonism are the most important and fundamental reasons for the formation of a risk society.

There are many factors in the emergence of risk society, including political and economic factors, natural ecology and values. According to some important structures contained in the social system, the emergence of risk society mainly has the following factors:

1. The growth and powerful power of political totalitarianism. For countries that advocate globalization and modernity in the world, there is usually an understanding that the arbitrariness of power seems to be only a thing of the past years, absolutism is mainly the characteristic of pre-modern countries, and there is no totalitarianism in democratic countries. However, since the end of the cold war in the last century, especially in the last 20 years, many major events in the world, such as NATO's eastward expansion and the Gulf War, have clearly shown that political power and military threats are not far away from our times, and the possibility of totalitarianism has been incorporated into the design of modern systems. "Totalitarianism is different from traditional autocracy, but its result is even more horrible. Today's totalitarian rule connects political, military and ideological power in a more centralized way, which was almost impossible before the emergence of the nation-state [7]. In the process of carrying out its power politics and unilateralism, the superpower not only caused terror and threat to the people of the world, but also cast a shadow over modernity. In a sense, the risk society can be regarded as a response to the modern nation-state and democratic society.

2. North-South economic differences and the widening gap between the rich and the poor. Although industrialization and modernization have created great wealth for mankind and many successful life opportunities for people, it should be admitted that poverty and hunger are still important factors that currently plague peace on our planet. The gap between rich and poor countries, and the gap between rich and poor, has not been narrowed by modernization. On the contrary, the gap between the North and the South and the gap between the rich and the poor were left behind by colonial rule, which kept some parts of the world in poverty, disease and war for a long time. Due to the huge difference in the possession of resources and wealth, modernity has been broken, such as abandoning the existing national traditions under the signboard of modernization and breaking the historical order; In order to catch up with modernization, desperate over-exploitation of limited resources has caused damage to the environment and resources and threatened sustainable development [8]. Therefore, this modernity and globalization contain great risks. Poverty changes, and poverty is chaos. The gap between the rich and the poor is an important factor causing social instability, which in turn will increase the social risk coefficient.

3. Destroy the ecological environment and plunder biological resources. As we all know, the earth's resources are not inexhaustible infinite resources, and the earth's ecology also has its own evolution law and internal balance requirements. In the process of showing its modernity, human beings have built many magnificent chapters with their superb wisdom, but all this is always accompanied by human's ruthless possession and destruction of nature, so nature has also made many ruthless counterattacks on human behavior, such as destroying the ozone layer in the earth's atmosphere, leading to global climate anomalies; Large-scale destruction of forest vegetation leads to increasingly serious soil erosion and desertification, as well as marine environmental pollution caused by industrialization, which leads to the continuous occurrence of red tides. All these pose a threat to modernization. However, frequent natural disasters, as well as the combination of man-made ecological destruction and natural forces, not only make modern people forced to use their huge wealth for various disaster prevention and mitigation, but also increase the cost of development. At the same time, due to the susceptibility and suddenness of various disasters, it also adds many uncertain factors to modernization. The destruction of the ecological environment and the wanton plunder of living resources by human beings have objectively contributed to the formation and development of a risk society.

4. Human alienation conflicts with moral anomie, national sentiment and social values. A remarkable feature of modern society is that the great prosperity of material has brought people the possibility of rich enjoyment and choice. In this materialized world, people's spiritual world is often distorted by the temptation of material, which has been confirmed in Marx's era. But today, more than a hundred years later, the phenomenon of human alienation has not disappeared, but has intensified. Due to bureaucratic corruption, political commercialization and consumerism in modern society, it has become a common problem in all countries in the world today. Paying attention to economic growth without paying attention to humanistic care will inevitably lead to material desire and spiritual decadence, and will inevitably lead to moral anomie, generalization of rights and conflict of social values. In addition, people in different countries have objective differences in history, culture, religion, beliefs and so on, and certain national or religious feelings will accumulate. Once the appropriate conditions are met,

Fourth, the manifestation of risk society.

The existence of risk society and its manifestations are various. According to the results of current observation and research, the manifestations of risk society mainly include the following:

1. Various emergencies occur frequently, and the society lacks an effective crisis management mechanism. Because modern society is far from realizing the full and coordinated development of economy, nature and society, modernity still has many important defects. The development model that only emphasizes construction and development and ignores causality is enough to make modern society suffer many disasters. All kinds of emergencies not only cause great casualties and property losses to the country and people, but also cause great pressure and panic to the society, such as frequent production safety accidents, various natural and geological disasters, personal injuries caused by poor product quality and so on. This poses a threat to the development of modern society. In these emergencies, the destructive power and influence caused by human factors are the greatest and the most profound.

2. Making use of the resources of the existing social organization structure to create and disseminate all kinds of deliberate information constitutes an impact on the existing system and structure. From the perspective of the operation and development of risk society and natural society, the biggest difference between them is that risk society is full of more unconventional impact threats caused by human factors than natural society. Man-made sabotage is getting worse, such as artificially controlling or distorting market price signals in economic activities, creating market fluctuations and disrupting normal economic exchanges; Ideologically, it pursues hegemonism, interferes in the internal affairs of other countries (others) everywhere under the guise of freedom, democracy and human rights, and creates and spreads all kinds of rumors and malicious information; Under the banner of religious belief, invite people to preach eschatology and destroy life. At the same time, take advantage of the opportunity of social change and transformation to incite people's emotions and advocate fallacies.

3. Organizing, connecting, instigating, carrying out terrorist activities or threatening to carry out terrorist acts through the Internet by using modern high-tech means. At present, terrorism is prevalent in the world, and they may use the interests of the country and the nation as an excuse to implement state terrorism; Or appear as a weak person and attract the attention of the world through terrorist threats. Terrorism has set a terrible example in dealing with international affairs and ethnic and religious contradictions, realizing interests and easing people's emotions. There are signs that terrorism has evolved into an important social ideological trend and political proposition, and has become the most prominent and dangerous manifestation of modern risk society.

4. Organize underworld gangs through underground networks. At present, whether at home or abroad, the activities of evil forces and underground organizations are rampant, and the establishment of illegal underground organizations, the operation of underground economy, the formation of underground armed forces, and the opening of underground banks have posed a great threat to the stability and development of the real society. Some of these public or secret criminal activities are anti-social behaviors against the government and state machines, and some are aimed at maximizing interests. But in any case, evil forces and underground organized crime, as the cancer of society, have done great harm to society and have become another concentrated embodiment of the risk society.

Verb (abbreviation of verb) the harm of risk society

The existence of risk society has brought serious consequences and far-reaching influence to economic and social development and people's lives. As far as the nature of harm is concerned, it can be divided into two types: dominant and recessive. Explicit harm refers to the direct losses caused to the lives and property of the country and people, such as casualties, damage to facilities and financial losses. The hidden harm is long-term and potential, that is, it exists or manifests itself in the form of non-physical objects. Such as destroying the investment environment and economic order; Trample on public safety and social order; Distrust of politics and government policies, etc. Judging from the current world order and social development, the impact of risk society on the development of human subjects and social interaction is mainly reflected in:

First, the risk society has increased the pressure of people's life and development, and the individual tension has increased. Although modern society has created rich material wealth and a vast space for people's survival and development, as many scholars have pointed out, economic growth itself does not necessarily or automatically bring social security and stability. Due to the great temptation of material wealth; Because the risk society is everywhere, it gives people unprecedented psychological load and spiritual stimulation. In order to pursue the maximization of material benefits, people may take risks; In order to prove the existence value of self, people may create all kinds of shocking events. In modern society, the general trend of material luxury, social corruption and fashion pursuit not only changes people's way of thinking and behavior, but also strongly stimulates people's nerves, resulting in people's sense of crisis and psychological pressure, and even produces some anti-social complexes because some personal wishes cannot be realized.

Second, the risk society makes people's transaction costs in economic and social activities increase, and the cost of security and trust increases. Because in a risky society, all kinds of artificial false behaviors prevail, market signals have become unreliable. In order to protect their own interests, people not only need to master more and more knowledge or skills, but also need to have enough ability to predict or judge the future, taking into account some risks in the future. Therefore, the enhancement of risk awareness itself will inevitably increase people's costs in economic activities and social interaction. However, it stems from people's worries about certain events and the increasing possibility of ubiquitous crises, which makes people have to defend themselves everywhere, thus losing their universal sense of responsibility and trust.

Third, the risk society makes the efficiency and stability mechanism double decline. Because the existence of risk society is accompanied by some inappropriate and uncoordinated development of modern society, it is related to the expansion of modern totalitarian system, economic hegemonism and the conflict of social values. Therefore, in the shadow of a risk society, the efficiency and stability mechanism of social development will be threatened by double threats. On the one hand, if the risk society is regarded as a reasonable reflection of people's unreasonable system in reality, then people have reason to give up this system and stop working for it. On the other hand, due to the ubiquitous crisis lurking in society, social fairness and justice are always threatened. Therefore, the harm that the risk society brings to people and society is not only the loss of some lives and property, but also the challenge to the government's ruling ability. The decline of people's recognition of the government, and even the disintegration of the government caused by the crisis of trust, will in turn aggravate the occurrence of a risk society.

Fourth, the existence of a risk society has broken the traditional concept of national security. In terms of national security, the traditional concept of national security in the past mainly emphasized national security, territorial inviolability, national independence, national self-determination and prevention of secession. However, with the evolution of risk society, there are various forms of terrorist activities at home and abroad, as well as the emergence of organized transnational crime; In view of the formation characteristics of international hegemonism, especially economic and cultural hegemonism; In view of the frequent occurrence of various emergencies and the intensification of various geological and natural disasters, the traditional security concept is being replaced by the non-traditional security concept. Actively participating in and promoting the establishment of a new international political and economic order, maintaining the deepening of various domestic reform measures and realizing social stability and orderly development all require us to change our thinking. While strengthening the understanding of risk society research, special institutions and funds should be established as soon as possible to prevent and deal with risk disasters and improve the means and ability to deal with various emergencies.

In a word, the impact of risk society on the whole human society is profound, comprehensive and inevitable. Just like the famous sociologist Anthony, Dean of the London School of Economics? Giddens pointed out: "The world we live in today is a terrible and dangerous world, which is enough for us to do more things instead of being insensitive, and there is no need to prove the hypothesis that modernity will lead to a happier and safer social order." [9]

Sixth, some suggestions.

1. As an important development strategy, comprehensively study the occurrence, development and change law of risk society. As a study of basic national conditions, it should be considered in national development planning.

2. Organize relevant departments, or establish specialized research institutions, and start to plan countermeasures to improve the means and ability to deal with emergencies. Highlights include:

(1) Carry out legislative research on emergency prevention and disaster management as soon as possible, and build a legal and regulatory system for dealing with various crisis events in China. Form a strong constraint according to law, effectively allocate emergency management resources, make arrangements in advance according to law, and inspect, supervise and handle them afterwards according to law.

(2) Give play to the leading role of the government, build a unified risk management command and coordination mechanism of the whole society, and set up a unified urban disaster emergency management agency to be responsible for comprehensive disaster prevention and relief work. Overcome the obvious disadvantages existing in the current system of division of labor management from a single disaster and improve the rescue ability.

(3) Promote the construction of scientific and technological disaster prevention and disposal, and enhance the capacity of disaster prevention and disposal through modern scientific and technological means. Incorporate scientific and technological disaster reduction into urban development planning. Comprehensively develop and establish a data system for risk assessment and social early warning research. Attach importance to the role of information and multimedia technology in prevention and control.

(4) Mobilize the whole people and vigorously carry out national safety education and disaster prevention education activities. The establishment of "National Safety Education Day", combined with the annual popular science activity week, widely popularized the common sense, skills and self-help methods of preventing and handling unexpected accidents, and improved the citizens' awareness of prevention and control and their ability to resist shocks. Establish a community rescue network to create a cultural and psychological basis for fighting emergencies.

(5) actively explore the management and operation mechanism of materials, equipment and funds for preventing and handling emergencies under the conditions of market economy. Establish a risk fund, expand the financial guarantee of urban emergency management through the development of disaster insurance, and promote the continuous improvement of the social security system.

refer to

[1] zygmunt bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, Cambridge, English. : Politics, 1989

[2] Anthony? Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, Yilin Press, 2000, p. 18-46.

[3] John J marcio Nice, Ken plummer: "Sociology _ Introduction to the World", prentiss Hall Publishing House, Europe, 1998, Part V: Social Change, the first 636-66 1 page.

[4] ulrich beck, Venture Company: In a modern environment, Frankfurt: Suhrkampf, 1986.

[5] Hans? Sachse: Ecological Philosophy, Oriental Publishing House, 199 1.

[6] ulrich beck, "The Impact of Anthropology: The Outline of Chernobyl and Risk Society", in Bekele Journal of Sociology, 1987, p. 32-5 1 page.

[7] anthony giddens, Nation-State and Violence, Cambridge, English. : Politics, 1985, p. 105.

[8] Giddens, The Construction of Society, Cambridge, English. : Politics, 1984

[9] Anthony? Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, Yilin Press, 2000, p. 9.