Ethics of Risk Society Ethics in Public Life AIO 2015

„Risk society” Risk vs. Danger: An outcome of human deeds ( -> attributable responsibility) Constructed in an act of perception Subject to management techniques - Political acceptability of dangers, not risks - Limits of solidarity - Problems with attribution (who is to blamed?) - Social effects dependent on perception of risk - New types of risks, not directly visible (lack of common sense/s)

„Knowledge and Action” In what ways institutions of modern society perceive risks and how they react? A theory of reflexive modernity Anthony Giddens (institutional reflexivity) Ulrich Beck (reflexive modernization)

Definition of reflexivity Reflexivity: the regularized use of knowledge about circumstances of social life as a constitutive element in its organization and transformation. (Giddens, Modernity and Self-Identity, p. 20) ‘Reflexive modernization’ means self-confrontation with the effects of risk society that cannot be dealt with and assimilated in the system of industrial society – as measured by the latter’s institutional standards. (Beck, Reflexive Modernization, p. 6)

A history of modernity: „social engineering” & Aunt Polly’s case

Perception of risks “Science is one of the causes, the medium of definition and the source of solutions to risks, and by virtue of that very fact it opens new markets of scientization for itself.” Beck, Risk Society, p. 155 Legal legitimacy through expertise Law becomes dependent of external definitions – „disembedding” of law by expertise A fight for the „right to define”: experts and anti-experts, „tweetization of risk”

Normative moment of risk society Beck: ‘Emancipatory catastrophism’ Cosmopolitical vision Giddens: Politics of life Double hermeneutics

Reactions on risks Beck: Structural character of risks requires structural solutions. Risks are to be eliminated. Precautionary and reactive strategy Giddens: Local answers to structural risks. Risks are to be managed. Risks as chances. „Generative” and proactive strategy

Theoretical and/or empirical question? Structure/agency dilemma Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons: Empirical evidence of common actions of individual agents succesfuly affecting institutional structures

Paradigmatic example of risk?

Cultural styles of dealing with risk German “Totalität” vs. British pragmatism German and British regulations of occupational health and safety