Conflict of Values and the Consciousness of Risk.
Frank Furedi, Department of Sociology, Eliot College, The University,
Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NP, England, fax: 01227-827289, e-mail: fl2@ukc.ac.uk
The
aims of this paper is to explore risk consciousness. The paper suggests that
many of the current theories of risk perception are too one sidedly technical,
the new advances of science, the breakdown of trust in expert systems are
valuable for providing insight about the form of risk perception but not about
its content.
This
paper argues that the intense consciousness of risk, today, is the outcome of
profound social changes ‑ the breakdown of existing forms of social
cohesion, the evolution of new roles and the redefinition of the individual's
relation to society. Most important is the conflict of values -- the 'problem of
morality' -- which prevails in many Western societies. The main thesis of the
paper is that perceptions of risk -- at the personal and societal level -- are
proportional to the problem of gaining consensus behind a system of moral
values. These arguments will be developed through an examination of how
perceptions of individual safety have changed during the past two decades.
The
arguments above are to be published in F. Furedi, Scared for Life -- Essays in Risk Consciousness, Cassell, 1997.
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