Employment, Individualization and Insecurity: Rethinking the Risk Society Perspective

Abstract

German sociologist Ulrich Beck maintains that economic, technological and environmental transitions have radically reshaped employment relations in Western Europe. Whilst theories of employment transformation are historically ubiquitous, Beck's contribution is rather unique. Utilising risk as a lens through which subterranean shifts in employment, the economy and society can be visualised, Beck's work has been heralded as a significant theoretical landmark. The risk society perspective emphasizes the diffusion of two interlinked macro-social processes. Firstly, Beck identifies a sweeping process of individualization which recursively generates personal insecurity and reflexive decision-making. Secondly, changes in the relationship between capital and labour are said to have facilitated an underlying shift in the pattern of social distribution. This paper scrutinises Beck's understanding of these two processes, as a means of developing a broader critique of the risk society perspective. Theoretically, it will be argued that Beck deploys unsophisticated and artificial categories, amalgamates disparate forms of risk and compacts together diverse employment experiences. Empirically, the paper demonstrates that -far from being directed by a universal axis of risk -labour market inequalities follow the grooves etched by traditional forms of stratification.

Społeczna niepewność jako bariera wdrażania innowacji - przykład biopaliw w Polsce

“…Należy zauważyć, że "niepewność społeczna" jest głównie pojęciem poznawczym, spowodowanym niekompletnymi informacjami o obszarze społecz-nym, który może również (ale nie musi) być związany z uzewnętrznianiem emocji [Mythen 2005]. Społeczna niepewność jest często nie tyle odbiciem niepewności technologicznej, ile bardziej spontanicznych emocji i lęków pojawiających się w społeczeństwie [Lassen 2008[Lassen , s. 1030.…”

Perceptions of labour market risks: Shifts and continuities across generations

“…Cultural theorists argue that perceptions of risk are culturally constructed and mediated, and subject to social learning (Douglas and Wildawsky 1982;Oltedal et al 2004). Social theorists highlight how social class, gender, ethnicity and age have a bearing on people's perceptions of and responses to risk -making them, for example, more or less risk-averse Cartmel 1997 and2007;Lupton 1999, Tulloch andLupton 2003;Mitchell et al 2001;Wilkinson 2001;Mythen 2005). Our research adds an important dimension to such theoretical and empirical nuances by focusing explicitly on inter-generational changes and continuities in risk perceptions.…”

“…Our research, based on interviews with different generations of individuals, allows us in this paper to examine new empirical evidence and to ask how clearly the posited disjuncture between a collectivised past and an individualised present can be identified in biographical narratives about labour market entry and participation across these generations. As such, our research can be viewed as a response to the often-presented charge that the risk society thesis lacks empirical verification (Alexander 1996;Wilkinson 2001;Tulloch and Lupton 2003;Mythen 2004 and2005;de Beer 2007). Moreover, our research adds to the growing academic literature which underlines that risk perceptions are mediated and differentiated along cultural and social-structural lines.…”

Anti-Polish Migrant Moral Panic in the UK: Rethinking Employment Insecurities and Moral Regulation

“…When emphasising a risk-society approach, it is important to acknowledge its critical reception, which is also relevant for our study. Namely, there has been a surge in literature demonstrating how employment insecurities are unevenly distributed in the labour market and are mediated by the conditions of specifi c industrial sectors, the class and gender position of workers, and by their skills and amount of social and cultural capital workers have accumulated [Allen and Henry 1997;Mythen 2005;Cooper 2008]. Our contribution in particular points to the signifi cance of the class dimension as well as the regional specifi city of the north of England, which was hard hit by the fi nancial crisis.…”