Risk and Culture

The introductory paper of the thematic section, written by Zsolt Szíjártó, overviews how social thought has changed along with the emerging risks of technological development and how the vocabularies of uncertainty, danger, and risk have permeated social discourses.  He presents a review of the literature on risk research, and after identifying the main paradigms, he briefly discusses the results of Hungarian research initiatives.  In the following article, Wolfgang Bonß seeks to identify the main issues of the social science discourse on risk.  By using anthropological examples, he examines the history of the key concept, and shows how various authors have discussed the manifestations and meanings of uncertainty in different contexts.  The next essay, written by Mary Douglas, has the air of an intellectual autobiography.  She seeks to compare the various ways in which different communities have tried to cope with danger, and the various strategies they have used in estabilishing responsibility in cases of accidents and unfortunate events.  In the last article, Ulrich Beck describes the road along which industrial societies transform into risk societies:  he defines and interprets the distinction between the two social forms, reflects on the opinion of his critics, and provides a brief sketch of the new society.