The Problem of Risk in Sociological Theory

Abstract

Risk is obviously one of those concepts that have recently made an unusual career. It has become part of the colloquial language and scientific discourse; it has considerably replaced such terms as “threat” or “uncertainty,” thereby responding in a way to the social quest for rational causes of fears and anxieties. It started to define a broader and broader area of phenomena. Consequently, representative of social sciences initiated research on the over-all issue of risk. The paper depicts results from such reflections. In sociology they are present as “social contructionism,” and its main proponents are U. Beck and A. Giddens. The “risk” is a term which in sociological theory represented by the above authors may be regarded in two basic dimensions: firstly, in the cultural, political and economical dimensions, all of which constitute the grounds of the paradigm of “social risk”; secondly, they are present in the dimension of planning and carrying out one's own biography. Each of the dimensions has its consequences both in the structural changes of society, and in the formation of new patterns of behaviour with regard to individual activities.