Narcissus and Goldmund Herman Hesse essays

Narcissus and Goldmund Herman Hesse articles All through this book Hesse persistently investigates the possibility of the contention people experience while looking for their actual character. Narcissus and Goldmund, two medieval men whose characters are representations for the fundamental topic of keeps an eye on singular quest for self and the human experience. Narcissus is a priest firm in his strict and scholarly convictions or so he thinks, and Goldmund a young hungry for information and beneficial experience. Narcissus the astuteness carrying on with a simply scholastic life yet when Goldmund turns out to be a piece of his life, ends up battling the enthusiastic piece of his mind. Goldmund is the inverse, an individual destined to live to its fullest yet battling those wants because of parental impacts. The two men are oppositely inverse, even their names are figurative Narcissus the encapsulation of unadulterated keenness and Goldmund whos names interprets as Golden mouth which shows a long forever and common encounters. The account of the two people are similitudes of the ways and degree that one can lead a real existence. Narcissus has a hermetic presence in his ivory tower with his unadulterated idea , thinking and independent forlornness for colleagues. He is shut off from life in the religious community the acidic who is absolutely ignorant of lifes cycles. Goldmunds alleged drifter way of life wealthy in experience, free soul and free decisions. I feel here that Hesse that it be focused on that the extraordinary of any way of life, for example, in this story is really hazardous to the individual, and as per Hesse himself ( Comments from a discussion with Rudolf Koester) the advancement to turn into a character with benefit to think, feel, and act autonomously is the essential obligation of the person. Limits, for example, a total withdrawal into a hermetically fixed inner self is as perilous as the person who surrenders to the charm of conformi ... <!

We Are the World Essay Example for Free

We Are the World Essay In his all-inclusive similitude, â€Å"The Allegory of the Cave,† Plato depicts a discussion between his sibling, Glaucon, and Socrates about the trouble of getting reality. Behind these detainees are puppeteers who hold a manikin show utilizing the shadows of the fire behind them. The detainees can just observe the shadows threw by the puppeteers and they can just hear the sound of echoes from behind. For their entire lives, they are just acquainted with see these shadows looking like phony items, for example, trees and creatures. One of the detainees is discharged from the chain and he encounters an entirely different world that he has never experienced. What he had thought was a tree was not, at this point a similar tree that he had known before.There, he is presented to daylight and reality hits him. In this moral story, the detainees speak to individuals in the public eye. This inlalcludes all individuals, no malaatter what race they are, what social class they are in, and furthermore what sex they are. We are secured in the cavern and we are the ones who can just observe what is appeared on the divider, except if we open the our eyes to new encounters. Thus to detainee that was blinded the by the solid light outside, we additionally need to provoke ourselves to new thoughts and perhaps be blinded by the light to see another view In Abercrombie’s words, the man just had the construction of what was appeared on the cavern divider, which made him have a constrained storage facility of information.

Historical Literature Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Chronicled Literature - Essay Example Malamund’s story tells just one of the numerous battles among legacy and what is acknowledged by society. Through the span of history numerous individuals have been mistreated and constrained into accommodation by a greater all the more socially acknowledged culture. Jewish religion has consistently met with mistreatment since the beginning, however shockingly while the Jewish are the most notable, they are by all account not the only ones who have needed to bear the existence destroying influences of an attacking people and culture greater than their own. History is loaded with accounts of individuals who were viewed as substandard by overcoming societies. The Jew Bird subtleties the pulverization of a culture overpowered by a bigger population’s desires and thoughts with respect to the manner in which an individual should carry on with their life. Malamund utilizes Cohen for instance of what each Jewish American acknowledges and fears will happen to their way of life and their method for living. Cohen has overlooked the manners in which that he used to live. His method for living has been so totally modified that he doesn't perceive a genuine Jew when he sees one, and when interrogated concerning Jewbird he says,† Poor winged creature, my butt. He is a saucy knave. He thinks he is a Jew† (Malamund 738). Cohen has gotten harsh and exhausted of life and rejoices in light of anything. For instance, when Jewbird goes to his entryway requesting nourishment, rather than benevolently welcoming him into his home and offering him nourishment and solace as Jewish culture recently overlooked, he cruelly attempts to dismiss him by saying, This aint a café (Malamund 738). He wouldn't like to assist or give anybody good cause on the grounds that nobody did that for him while his kin were being abused by the Nazis and being murd ered by the thousands. The nearness of Jewbird in the story gives the peruser a stinging token of how superb the Jewish culture used to be and how unpleasantly crushed it became. The differentiation among Jewbird and Cohen is so solid. While Cohen wont make a special effort for anybody, Jewbird Burns through most

Parsuasive Essay On Important Of Physical Exercise - 1650 Words

Parsuasive Essay On Important Of Physical Exercise (Essay Sample) Content: Importance of Physical ExerciseKhalid AlmutairiENG141_3Professor Anastasia Krueck-Frahn, M. EdThesisContinuous exercises for a long time enables the body to adapt to the physical activity and thus enabling it to do more exercises efficiently. This concept of exercising is the underlying knowledge behind the many benefits associated with exercises. Like all machinery, human muscles must have a fuel supply to function well. This fuel comes from the food we ingest and human body reserves of glucose and fats. The nutrients from food cannot be turned directly into usable forms of energy for the trillions of cells found in the human body. Each and every cell in the human body has its primary source of energy in a cell molecule referred to as adenosine triphosphate. The ability of the human body to produce adenosine triphosphate is quite critical as it dictates the bodys capacity for physical exertion, and, the reverse is also true. Does the physical activity of the human bo dy influence how well the body cells generate adenosine triphosphate and a general wellbeing of the body?It has been established that various kinds of food ingested into a humans body contains energy that is stored in the form of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. The body requires that these energy forms are extracted and captured in the form of adenosine triphosphate. To do this, human stomach and the little intestines play a critical role in breaking the ingested food into tiny molecules which can be absorbed into the blood water and taken to each cell inside the body. Inside the cell, in a small cell structure referred to as mitochondria, the food molecules is selected through a series of chemical reactions that lead to the formation of adenosine triphosphate. A human body can only store only a small amount of adenosine triphosphate, but the body can make it as quickly as it is needed. When the demand for adenosine triphosphate increases, such as during exercise, the body is f orced to churn out more. For the body to do this, it taps into the fats and glucose stored in the liver, muscles, and various parts of the body (Pokorski, 2016). These fats and glucose are moved through the blood stream to the muscles where the fats and glucose are crushed for the production of adenosine triphosphate in two ways:Aerobic processes that require oxygen and produces more adenosine. Without oxygen, this process grinds to a halt. When your body is working so hard that it is unable to deliver enough oxygen to support the aerobic metabolism of food for fuel, it switches to anaerobic production of adenosine triphosphate.The anaerobic process, which occurs in absents of oxygen. This process creates a byproduct known as lactic acid that enters the bloodstream, creating an acid imbalance. To compensate, the breathing process speeds up to take in more oxygen your heart beats faster to move that oxygen to your body. But, since the human body cannot sustain anaerobic activity, the body can only neutralize the resulting acid imbalance for a very short period. This is what brings amount fatigue in the muscles and eventually calling for a slow down on the exercise activity.Obesity is a public health that has been rated as being world pandemic due to its great concern due to its effect on productivity across the various country. Obesity is a health condition caused by the expansion of adipose cell tissues in the body. The expansion of adipose tissues is due by an excessive intake of energy giving foods that lead to adipocyte dysfunction. This condition makes victims susceptible to cardiovascular diseases. The condition is also very expensive to treat. This health condition can be avoided by engaging in a regular exercise or physical activity. Engaging in a physical exercise or a physical activity helps to burn down the energy and thus reducing the formation of adipose tissues.Despite the fact that exercise can accrue some advantages to those who practice it on a consistently regular basis, one will find many people giving excuses about their participation in keeping fit. The explanations range from lack of time to a general laziness and procrastination. Most people claim that they have busy schedules to an extent they cannot find time for exercise activities. For these people to overcome this perception, there is the need for them to monitor their daily activities and locate about thirty minutes in their schedule for the exercise. Further, they should choose to walk to workplaces or school instead of taking a bus, and walk up the stairs instead of elevators. Additionally, they should have their daily activities organized so as to involve jogging and play sessions. Additionally, they should arrange for activities involving physical exercises such as jogging.When a person is engaged in a physical exercise activity, the blood vessels undergo a dilation and thus increasing the amount of oxygen supply to the working muscle tissues. At this po int, there is a temporary increase in the metabolic rate within the body. This increase in metabolic rate makes one feel energized throughout the day. The bursts of physical energy do not only occur during the exercise process but also after the exercise is done. Thus, working out in the morning or the evening will make one feel energized throughout the day. Even if one does exercising in the evening, many calories will still get burned and hence bringing a good feeling.The first barrier to physical activity comes with a general dislike for sports. This explains why some people claim not to be good at playing any game. The biggest challenge to this category of individuals is the attitude towards physical activities and themselves. This kind of barrier can only be overcome by engaging in exercise activities that interest the person. Doing so usually seems so hard to start, but once it has been developed into a routine, it will always come with a package of benefits and significant in terests. There are a variety of physical activities and exercises that a person can engage in. These include dancing, trekking, bicycling, gardening, and swimming. Even volunteer activities such as serving people provide an excellent form of physical exercise (Smith, Biddle, 2008).The second barrier affects the retired category of individuals. There are people who upon their retirement chose to be less active instead of seeing the retirement as an opportunity to engage in physical activities and exercises. Some of the retirees argue that after working for so many years, retirement is their time to relax and take everything easy. At this time of retirement, these people have sufficient time, and thus, an opportunity for them make a regular exercise schedule and follow. To overcome this barrier, such people should take more time in doing gardening, playing with their grandchildren dancing. Such people should spend more time gardening, dancing, swimming and playing with their grandchi ldren. At retirement age, a lack of participation in exercise or physical activities has been evidently associated with chronic illnesses. Cardiovascular is one condition that was found to cause shortness of breath and fatigue among the retirement category of people. Also, most adults are faced with neurological deficit challenge. This challenge affects movements and increases the risk of falling but, the can be minimized through physical exercises(Yeo, 2013).A preoccupation with family activities and obligation is another barrier to exercise. A person should strike a balance between attending to the family activities and engaging in practices. Striking a balance between physical activity and family responsibilities is important. Neighbors can jump rope together, go for a bicycle riding and use any other gym facilities besides attending to family activities and tasks. Further, guardians and parents can engage in physical exercises when their kids are sleeping or are gone to school ( Stiehl, Morris, Sinclair, 2008).Exercising keeps a persons weight gain at bay. When a person is engaged in an exercise, more calories from fats are burned as compared to when a person is doing simple activities such as working on a computer.Exercise helps in fighting diseases and keeping good health conditions. Diseases such high blood pressure and other heart conditions resu...

Holden Caulfield of Catcher In the Rye, the equivalent...

Holden Caulfield of Catcher In the Rye, the equivalent portrayal of J.D Salinger Jerome David â€Å"J.D† Salinger’s masterpiece, The Catcher in the Rye, is a world to the disillusioned protagonist Holden Caulfield. The story follows Holden Caulfield following his eviction from his private school, Holden leaves school two days early to travel New York before returning home. He interconnected with many different folks along the way and fascinatingly, the character of Holden Caulfield holds a remarkable similarity to J.D Salinger himself. The Cather in the Rye was based on J.D Salinger’s life, the world in which he lived, and the world in general has influenced the production of the novel. They both have a comparable childhood to each other and†¦show more content†¦Thus, J.D Salinger’s personal experiences in life have influenced the storyline of the novel and the character of Holden Caulfield prominently. Secondly, both Holden and Salinger were born and raised in Manhattan, New York, which was the setting for the storyline in The Catcher In the Rye and it delivers its atmosphere momentously. When Holden was relaxing in his hotel room, he took advantage of the freedom New York City has and calls out for a prostitute to fulfil his desire, as presented in the novel â€Å"I figured if she was a prostitute and all, I could get in some practice on her, in case I ever get married or anything. I worry about that stuff sometimes.† (Salinger 50) New York City is infamous for the amount of prostitutions it has and how easy it is to demand for one. In the novel, Holden was asked by a man in the lift if he wanted one and Holden, because he was trying to get rid of his virginity throughout the book and was stressed, accepted the offer. Salinger lived his middle-aged life in New York, has certainly seen this obscene interpretation of the city and was expressing his desperation to look for yo ung women without the necessity of a connection. Few iconic places in

Relationships Between Family, Friends And Individuals By...

Book Intimacy Personal Relationships in Modern Societies wrote by Lynn Jamieson tells us about different types or relationships between family, friends and individuals. Lynn Jamieson is giving us comparrison how the pre-modern, modern and postmodern family and their relation to each other looked like. She also writes about gendered divisions in labour which means how does the women in marriage was treated and what was her duties at home. Lynn Jamieson also writes in her book about friends, kin and intimacy. She tells us about the balance of friends and kin, exclusivity and community in social networks. Lynn Jamieson talks about different types of intimacy, intimacy across genders, generations, classes and races. One of the tasks of her book is to consider whether this type of intimacy is an fact commonly found or found at all in people s personal lives. She talks about different types of intimate relationships parent - child relationships, relationships with friends and kin, sexual relationships and couple relationships.(Jamieson,1988) In the book we read about the wider significance of intimacy in personal life. Personal relationships are a key form of social cohesion(Jamieson,1988) From this quote Jamieson is trying to tell us that relationship with another person are helping us staying together and building our relations with other different people. Family and friendship relationships of childhood are critical in the production of socially competent adults,Show MoreRelatedWhat Is the Relationship Between Social Change and Changes in Space and Time?1699 Words   |  7 PagesWhat is the relationship between social change and changes in space and time? Illustrate with examples drawn from at least two of : changes in cities, changes in media, changes in intimacy. In looking at the relationship between social change and changes in space and time. We first require understanding of what social change is. Sociologists from every school of thought agree that social change is inevitable within our society. Social change is a highly diverse debate that has been analysed by theorist’s

Digital Image Creation And Development †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Digital Image Creation And Development. Answer: Financial Decision Making With integrated reporting, Zubino Company is able to develop a concise communication regarding the governance, policy strategies, performances and prospects expected of the company in a specified period of time. For the last few years, Zubino Company has demonstrated a rapid expansion rate and has been able to favorably compete in the industry. From the time of the company establishment, the camopany has been able to build and incorporate a series of strategies. This has been witnessed as follows; The relationship built among the stakeholders of the company indicate a lucrative work environment. According to research studies, it is reported that the success of most businesses is highly dependent on the type of relationship that exist among the stakeholders. The ability to have a high level of employee retention implies that more skills and experience can be maintained within the experienced company employees and subsequently more efficiency is attained (Govindan et al. 2015, p.80). Given the good working stakeholders relationship of Zubino, the pursuit of the organizational goals and objectives resulting from teamwork is made much easier. In other words, the decision making process is made minimal barriers due to the fact that there is limited opposition and most team players are all working towards achieving a single organizational goal of Zubino (Shepherd et al. 2015, p.20). The recruitment of competent team accompanied by guaranteed bonuses also leaves it inevitable for the firms success. This is due to the fact the workforce are motivated to provide their best effort. Risk management and opportunity identification is highly dependent on the performance of the human resource (Graham et al. 2015, p.450) Furthermore, the reputable financial background report of Zubino is an incentive in attracting of new investors. Rapid growth of the company (more than two times in just 2 years from 2001 to 2003) gives a higher prospect of its future. The transparency, and accountability of adopted by Zubino is yet another factor that makes operational flow of responsibilities easy and manageable. References Govindan, K., Rajendran, S., Sarkis, J. and Murugesan, P., 2015. Multi criteria decision making approaches for green supplier evaluation and selection: a literature review.Journal of Cleaner Production,98, pp.66-83. Graham, J.R., Harvey, C.R. and Puri, M., 2015. Capital allocation and delegation of decision-making authority within firms.Journal of Financial Economics,115(3), pp.449-470. Levy, H., 2015.Stochastic dominance: Investment decision making under uncertainty. Springer. Maine, E., Soh, P.H. and Dos Santos, N., 2015. The role of entrepreneurial decision-making in opportunity creation and recognition.Technovation,39, pp.53-72. Shepherd, D.A., Williams, T.A. and Patzelt, H., 2015. Thinking about entrepreneurial decision making: Review and research agenda.Journal of management,41(1), pp.11-46. Shepherd, D.A., Williams, T.A. and Patzelt, H., 2015. Thinking about entrepreneurial decision making: Review and research agenda.Journal of management,41(1), pp.11-46.

Scarlet Fever free essay sample

Scarlet fever is caused by infection with exotoxin-producing group A beta-hemolytic streptococci (GABHS), notably  Streptococcus pyogenes. The release of a particular toxin is responsible for the characteristic scarlet-colored rash seen with scarlet fever (giving the disease its name). In the majority of cases, scarlet fever occurs as a result of a pharyngeal streptococcal infection (strep throat), though it can less commonly occur as result of streptococcal infections at other sites, such as the skin. It is estimated that scarlet fever develops in up to 10% of individuals who develop streptococcal pharyngitis. Scarlet fever can occur at any time of the year, though it is more common during the winter and spring. The streptococcal bacterium is typically spread via airborne respiratory droplets transmitted by infected individuals or by individuals who carry the bacteria but do not experience any symptoms (asymptomatic carriers). Vector This illness can be caught from contact with the sick person because this germ is carried in the mouth and nasal fluids. We will write a custom essay sample on Scarlet Fever or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The disease can be spread through contact with droplets shed when an infected person coughs or sneezes. If you touch your mouth, nose, or eyes after touching something that has these fluids on them, you may become ill. Also, if you drink from the same glass or eat from the same plate as the sick person, you could also become ill. The best way to keep from getting sick is to wash your hands often and avoid sharing eating utensils. It is especially important for anyone with a sore throat to wash his or her hands often and not share eating or drinking utensils. Incubation period Symptoms usually begin within two to five days after a person is exposed. The fever usually subsides within a few days, and recovery is complete by two weeks Treatment Because of the nature of the infection and the danger of serious complications, scarlet fever cannot be treated solely with alternative therapies. A course of antibiotics and treatment by a physician is imperative. However, alternative therapies may be used to relieve the symptoms of fever and sore throat, such as homeopathy, massage with essentials oils, allopathic treatment. If the patient is treated promptly with antibiotics, full recovery can be expected. Patients who have had scarlet fever develop immunity to the disease and cannot be infected again. Prevention Although scarlet fever is only contagious before treatment with antibiotics is begun, it is wise to avoid exposure to children at any stage of the disease. The best preventative measure against scarlet fever is early and appropriate treatment with antibiotics for group A streptococcal infection. This will significantly decrease or eliminate an individuals chances of developing scarlet fever. The introduction and widespread use of antibiotics has been the most important factor in diminishing the cases of scarlet fever. Minimizing the risk of transmitting group A streptococcal infection is also important. Try to avoid close contact with individuals who have been diagnosed with strep throat, and avoid sending children to school or day care until they have been treated with antibiotics for at least 24 hours. Those individuals diagnosed with strep throat should try to avoid spreading the disease to others by maintaining good hygiene practices (wash hands frequently, use separate utensils and cups, and cover the mouth and nose when  coughing  or sneezing).

Overview of the Children of Helen of Troy

Overview of the Children of Helen of Troy   In Greek mythology, Helen of Troy was the most beautiful (mortal) woman in the world, the Face That Launched a Thousand Ships. But what was it like having her as a mother? Was she a Mommie Dearest nightmare or a doting dame†¦or somewhere in between? Hermione the Heartbreaker Helen’s most famous child is her daughter, Hermione, whom she had with her first husband, Menelaus of Sparta. Her mother abandoned little Hermy to run off with the Trojan Prince Paris; as Euripides tells us in his tragedy Orestes: She was â€Å"the little daughter she had left behind when she sailed off with Paris to Troy.† Orestes, Helen’s nephew, says that, while Helen was â€Å"away† and Menelaus was chasing her down, Hermione’s aunt Clytemnestra (Helen’s half-sister) raised the little girl. But Hermione was fully-grown by the time Telemachus paid Menelaus a visit in the Odyssey. As Homer recounts, â€Å"He was sending Hermione as bride to Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, that breaker of ranks of men, for he had promised her to him, and sworn an oath at Troy, and now the gods brought it about.† The Spartan princess was quite the looker, just like her mom- Homer claims her â€Å"beauty was golden Aphrodite’s†- but that marriage didn’t last. Other sources have different accounts of Hermione’s marriage. In Orestes, she’s promised to Neoptolemus, but Apollo proclaims that her cousin Orestes- who holds her hostage for her father’s good behavior in the play- will wed her. Apollo tells Orestes, â€Å"Furthermore, Orestes, your Fate declares that you will marry the woman at whose throat you are holding your sword. Neoptolemus, who thinks that he will marry her, will not do so.† Why is that? Because Apollo prophesies Neoptolemus will kick the bucket at the god’s sanctuary of Delphi when the young man goes to ask for â€Å"satisfaction for the death of Achilles, his father.† Hermione the Home-Wrecker? In another of his plays, Andromache, Hermione has become a shrew, at least as it related to how she treated Andromache. That woman was the widow of the Trojan hero Hector, enslaved after the war and forcibly â€Å"given† to Neoptolemus as his concubine. In the tragedy, Andromache complains, â€Å"My lord abandoned my bed, the bed of a slave, and married the Spartan Hermione, who now torments me with her cruel abuse.† Why did the wife hate her hubby’s slave? Hermione accuses Andromache â€Å"of using drugs of magic powers against her, of making her barren and of making her husband despise her.† Andromache adds, â€Å"She says I’m trying to force her out of the palace so that I can take over as its rightful mistress.† Then, Hermione proceeds to mock Andromache, dubbing her a barbarian and making fun of her plight as her husband’s slave, cruelly quipping, â€Å"And so, I can speak to you all as a free woman, indebted to no one!† Andromache fires back that Hermione was as much of a shrew as her mom: â€Å"Wise children must avoid the habits of their evil mothers!† In the end, Hermione regrets her heinous words against Andromache and her sacrilegious plots to pull the Trojan widow from the sanctuary of Thetis (Neoptolemus’s divine grandmother), violating the right of sanctuary Andromache had invoked by clinging to Thetis’s statue. An undercover Orestes arrives on the scene, and Hermione, fearful of her hubby’s retribution, pleads with him to help her get away from her husband, whom she thinks will punish her for plotting to kill Andromache and her kid by Neoptolemus.   Hermione beseeches her cousin, â€Å"I beg you, Orestes, in the name of our mutual father, Zeus, take me away from here!† Orestes agrees, claiming Hermione actually belonged to him because they were engaged before her father promised her to Neoptolemus, but Orestes was in a bad way- having killed his mom and being cursed for it- at the time. At the end of the play, not only does Orestes take Hermione away with him, but he also plots to ambush Neoptolemus at Delphi, where he’ll kill the king and make Hermione his wife. Off-screen, they get married; with hubby number two, Orestes, Hermione had a son named Tisamenus. The kid didn’t have such good luck when it came to being a king; the descendants of Heracles kicked him out of Sparta. Under-the-Radar Rugrats What about Helen’s other children? Some versions of her story feature her abduction at an early age by the Athenian king Theseus, who’d sworn a pact with his BFF Pirithous that each of them would abduct a daughter of Zeus. The poet Stesichorus claims that Theseus’s rape of Helen produced a little girl, Iphigenia, whom Helen gave to her sister to raise to maintain her own virginal image; that was the same girl whom her purported father, Agamemnon, sacrificed to get to Troy. So Helen’s daughter may have been murdered to get her mother back. Most versions of Helen’s tale, though, feature Hermione as Helen’s only child. In the eyes of the heroic Greeks, that would’ve made Helen a failure at her one and only job: producing a male child for her husband. Homer mentions in the Odyssey that Menelaus made his illegitimate son Megapenthes his heir, noting that â€Å"his son [was] the dearly beloved child of a slave, for the gods, gave Helen no more issue, once she had borne that lovely girl Hermione.† But one ancient commentator says that Helen had two kids: â€Å"Hermione and her youngest-born, Nicostratus, a scion of Ares.† Pseudo-Apollodorus confirms, â€Å"Now Menelaus had by Helen a daughter Hermione and, according to some, a son Nicostratus.† A later commentator suggests Helen and Menelaus had another little boy, Pleisthenes, whom she took with her when she fled to Troy, adding that Helen also bore Paris a son named Aganus. Another account mentions that Helen and Paris had three kids- Bunomus, Corythus, and Idaeus- but sadly, these boys died when the roof of the family home in Troy collapsed. R.I.P. Helen’s boys.

Cringe Story Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Cringe Story - Essay Example As I was heading towards the restaurant to grab a cup of coffee I saw someone gazing at me from distance. He had a persona like none other, a very charming and a good looking guy was consistently trying to establish eye contact with me and I was consistently pretending as though I had a decision to make but it was a fairly easy one. I went straight to him and introduced myself; he was taken aback initially but settled down like a duck takes to water. He had a very strong personality and a very impressive one too, he was very good at conversing and this was something I was looking for in my ideal man. I knew this was a match made in heaven and this was certainly not the first time I thought so, fickle minded people get carried away very quickly but deep down I knew he was the one. We had a very interesting conversation about the purpose of our trips, he had come there to attend a wedding and also to catch up with a few other friends while I had also come there for the very same purpose, everything seem to be in accord. I was completely blown away with his charm; he was not like the usual guys I had met earlier. He was something special and the way he carried himself was splendid. We inevitably ended up exchanging numbers and I got a call from him the very same night, we spoke for hours without realizing it, the time just flew past. He was never shy of offering his helping hand when I needed it the most, I remember him bailing me out of trouble many a time. Likewise, I tried to help him as much as I possibly could. We also started going out together more often than not, I got to know him better and he also had several opportunities to know me better. Upon looking back I realize that mundane day was not mundane after all and we were destined to meet on that particular day. Today we have taken our friendship one step forward, we have decided to get engaged and the future

Students eye careers in creating mobile applications Research Paper

Students eye careers in creating mobile applications - Research Paper Example After analyzing the external environment, the business proposal focuses on the internal issues. The internal assessment requires different requirements such as business name and the products that shall be provided to the potential customers. In the similar fashion, the next part elaborates rationale and reasons that were used to select a particular business. Having entertained these objectives, the business proposal elaborates mission, vision, goals and objectives. Being strategic in nature, it was highly important to consider these factors before moving ahead. The PESTLE analysis The PESTLE analysis takes into account and evaluates external business environment. The political aspect of the analysis considers political dimensions of the external business environment. In the business proposal, the UAE’s political environment remains investment friendly and supports investment activities in the country. The economic analysis considers external economic factors which directly or indirectly affect businesses and their operations. It takes into account GDP rate, trade balance and so on. The social analysis considers social issues. It uses education, health, population and other indicators and evaluates them in the light of objectives. In the business proposal, the UAE education graph has been constantly increasing, showing the resolve of the UAE government toward the education cause. The technological analysis puts light on technology related issues. The UAE is experiencing a substantial growth in the IT and telecommunication industry. In this regard, the role and contribution of DSO has been remarkable towards the technological development of the UAE. The legal analysis takes into account the legal aspects that are prevalent in the external environment. The UAE has most efficient and competent judicial system. The environmental analysis describes environment-related issues. It takes into account pollution, CO2 emissions, green house gases and other issues af fecting local or international environment. The UAE government has introduced EIA program. The main objective is to assess environment and factors affecting the environment. For that purpose, the UAE government has put in place strong measures. Business name, products and services This segment includes business name, products and services that the company shall provide to potential users. U-Phone Mobile Company Limited has been proposed name for the company. The company shall be registered with this name and having patent rights attached with the name. The proposed business shall offer numerous mobile applications development that include iPhone, Android, BlackBerry OS shall be used to develop different mobile applications. Reasons for selecting the business The purpose of this section is to highlight the reasons behind the selection of the proposed business and the proposed industry. It takes into account different angles and measures which are relevant to the proposed business and the proposed industry. This segment has a considerable significance in comparison with the other segments of the business proposal. First, it highlights the specific industry and its current business, marketing, demand and supply aspects of the business. It not only focuses on the mobile users, but also indicates the changing trends and patterns from the traditional use of the mobile services to the

Final Paper African Americans Essay Example for Free

Final Paper African Americans Essay Through out history there has been a struggle for African Americans to be accepted in our society. An African American endures many more disadvantages than most white people. The media and other sources have made blacks to look the same and has portrayed them in a certain light that may not be fitting to all blacks. There are many misconceptions that people have of blacks. Many people and organizations have had a part in bringing equality and fighting for equal rights for black people. African Americans have been at a huge disadvantage in America from the beginning. Unlike many other minority groups in America, African Americans in many cases were brought here by force and not by there own will. (000000) The first African Americans came to America in the seventeenth century and were immediately forced to work for Whites. After much turmoil and even a civil war Blacks were finally given there freedom with the Emancipation proclamation signed and ratified in 1863. Even after the proclamation some blacks were still enslaved and freed blacks had little to no opportunity. The struggle continued into the next century as blacks finally received the right to vote with the ratification in of the 15th amendment. The 20th century contained a world filled by a segregated America between whites and blacks through jim crow laws that existed that restricted blacks from interacting with whites. With a history like that it is no wonder that African Americans still have disadvantages in our modern day. America today is known as the country of opportunity. Although there are many opportunities out there it seems that there are more opportunities for some groups more than others. Many companies and corporations still use race as a indicator for hiring employees. In one study done by the National Bureau of Economic Research, people with common black names were less likely to be called back for an interview based on there application alone then black people with common white sounding names. Job applicants with white sounding names needed to send out ten applications to get one call back while applications with common black names needed to send out about fifteen to get one reply. (Francis, www. nber. org/digest.com). The research was done withe resumes of the same qualifications. It is easy to see that Black people are constantly bombarded by inequality in the work force. If there were inequalities just based on names of applicants just imagine the inequality when employers actually see the race of the applicants. Black Americans have been stereotyped for years and continue to be today. The media is one great source of portraying African Americans in certain roles. African Americans are portrayed as criminals, drug dealers and sex offenders in many instances. Many Africans are outraged at how they are portrayed in the media. Protest groups such as the Young African Americans Against Media Stereotypes have done what they can to show there stance on stereotypical media portrayal. Majority of the time you see a young African-American male in the media he is singing, rapping, scoring a touchdown, dunking a basketball or committing a crime( http://www. yaaams. com/) Many stereotypes about black people are incredibly false. Many people still think that black people are only good at certain things like music and sports. This is a very false belief and black people have contributed heavily to all different sorts of fields. Many vital inventions that we use on an everyday bases were invented by black people. The dust mop, pencil sharpener, typewriter, and elevator were all invented by black people. (http://www. black-network. com) Our society would not be what it is if it were not for Garret Morgan, the young Black man who invented the traffic light. http://www. infoplease. com/spot/bhmcensus1. html.

Silk - Research Method :: essays research papers

Do you know the process that goes into making silk? Many people over look this fine, luxurious garment. When I first heard that we had to do an I-search, I was overwhelmed by the choices. I made many changes before finally settling on this topic. When I first though of how to make silk, I didn't think that it would be that hard with the right tools. Although I knew that the fibers came from the silk worm's cocoon I still didn't know how they got it unraveled. I also thought that they only made silk in China. There are many things that I didn't know about making silk. When I thought of doing this topic I didn't think that it would be to easy either. I thought that I would have to go to more than one source to get the answer.I have one main goal for writing this I-search. That is because it is an assignment. If I wanted to know about this topic I wouldn't spend this much time on it.In the begging I wanted to do the topic "Is biological weapons worth the destruction that they cause on the planet?". Then I thought to myself, "There isn't a really right answer because everyone will have a different P.O.V. Now I had to come up with a better question, on that has a true answer. Then I thought to myself again, "Do you know how monorails work?". I didn't answer myself because then I would be crazy. But the first book I looked in I found the answer, so I dropped that idea. My last and final I-search topic would be, "How is silk made?". I think that that answer may be fairly easy to find, but it's a topic that interested me because my grandma has been to China and has seen that places where they (The Chinese) make the silk. She also showed me the cocoons that they take the thread from. On the first day that I started looking for the answer my English class went to the library. From there I combed the library for the answer. My first stop was an encyclopedia. The first random book that I pulled from the shelf was called Encyclopedia America. That one wasn't much help. It only told me how silk worms are cultivated. That didn't bother me much, because I was confident that I would find the answer still.

Ulrich Beck

Sociology http://soc. sagepub. com Beck's Sociology of Risk: A Critical Assessment Anthony Elliott Sociology 2002; 36; 293 DOI: 10. 1177/0038038502036002004 The online version of this article can be found at: http://soc. sagepub. com/cgi/content/abstract/36/2/293 Published by: http://www. sagepublications. com On behalf of: British Sociological Association Additional services and information for Sociology can be found at: Email Alerts: http://soc. sagepub. com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://soc. sagepub. com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www. agepub. com/journalsReprints. nav Permissions: http://www. sagepub. com/journalsPermissions. nav Citations (this article cites 6 articles hosted on the SAGE Journals Online and HighWire Press platforms): http://soc. sagepub. com/cgi/content/refs/36/2/293 Downloaded from http://soc. sagepub. com by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 022761 Elliott 13/5/2002 9:49 am Page 293 Risk Society Sociology Copyright  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd ®Volume 36(2): 293–315 [0038-0385(200205)36:2;293–315;022761] SAGE Publications London,Thousand Oaks, New Delhi Beck’s Sociology of Risk: A Critical Assessment s Anthony Elliott University of the West of England AB ST RAC T The German sociologist Ulrich Beck has elaborated a highly original formulation of the theory of risk and re? exive modernization, a formulation that has had a signi? cant impact upon recent sociological theorizing and research. This article examines Beck’s sociology of risk in the context of his broader social theory of re? xivity, advanced modernization and individualization. The article argues that Beck’s work is constrained by several sociological weaknesses: namely, a dependence upon objectivistic and instrumental models of the social construction of risk and uncertainty in social relations, and a failure to adequately de? ne the relations between institutional dynamism on the one hand and self-referentiality and critical re? ection on the other. As a contribution to the reformulation and further development of Beck’s approach to sociological theory, the article seeks to uggest other ways in which the link between risk and re? exivity might be pursued. These include a focus upon (1) the intermixing of re? exivity and re? ection in social relations; (2) contemporary ideologies of domination and power; and (3) a dialectical notion of modernity and postmodernization. K E Y WORDS domination / modernity / postmodernity / re? exivity / risk / social theory A s competent re? ective agents, we are aware of the many ways in which a generalized ‘climate of risk’ presses in on our daily activities.In our dayto-day lives, we are sensitive to the cluster of risks that affect our relations with the self, with others, and with the broader culture. We are specialists in carving out ways of coping and managing risk, whether this be through active engagement, resigned acceptance or confused denial. From dietary concerns to 293 Downloaded from http://soc. sagepub. com by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 022761 Elliott 294 13/5/2002 Sociology 9:49 am Volume 36 s Page 294 Number 2 sMay 2002 prospective stock market gains and losses to polluted air, the contemporary risk climate is one of proliferation, multiplication, specialism, counterfactual guesswork, and, above all, anxiety. Adequate consideration and calculation of risktaking, risk-management and risk-detection can never be fully complete, however, since there are always unforeseen and unintended aspects of risk environments. This is especially true at the level of global hazards, where the array of industrial, technological, chemical and nuclear dangers that confront us grows, and at an alarming rate.Indeed the Germa n sociologist, Ulrich Beck (1996a), de? nes the current situation as that of ‘world risk society’. The rise of risk society, Beck argues, is bound up with the new electronic global economy – a world in which we live on the edge of high technological innovation and scienti? c development, but where no one fully understands the possible global risks and dangers we face. My aim in this article is to explore some of the issues that concern the relation between risk and society by focusing on the work of Beck.A profoundly innovative and imaginative social theorist, Beck has developed powerful analyses of the ways in which the rise of the risk society is transforming social reproduction, nature and ecology, intimate relationships, politics and democracy. 1 It is necessary to state at the outset that I am not seeking in this article to provide a general introduction to Beck’s work as a whole. Rather, I shall offer a short exposition of Beck’s risk society thesis, in conjunction with his analysis of re? exivity and its role in social practices and modern institutions. The econd, more extensive half of the article is then critical and reconstructive in character. I try to identify several questionable social-theoretic assumptions contained in Beck’s risk society thesis, as well as limitations concerning his analysis of re? exivity, social reproduction and the dynamics of modernity. In making this critique, I shall try to point, in a limited and provisional manner, to some of the ways in which I believe that the themes of risk and social re? exivity can be reformulated and, in turn, further developed in contemporary sociological analysis.Outline of the Theory Let me begin by outlining the central planks of Beck’s social theory. These can be divided into three major themes: (1) the risk society thesis; (2) re? exive modernization; and (3) individualization. The Risk Society Thesis From his highly in? uential 1986 volume Ris k Society through to Democracy without Enemies (1998) and World Risk Society (1999b), Beck has consistently argued that the notion of risk is becoming increasingly central to our global society. 2 As Beck (1991: 22–3) writes: Downloaded from http://soc. agepub. com by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 022761 Elliott 13/5/2002 9:49 am Page 295 Beck’s sociology of risk Elliott [T]he historically unprecedented possibility, brought about by our own decisions, of the destruction of all life on this planet †¦ distinguishes our epoch not only from the early phase of the Industrial Revolution but also from all other cultures and social forms, no matter how diverse and contradictory.If a ? re breaks out, the ? re brigade comes; if a traf? c accident occurs, the insurance pays. This interplay between before and after, between security in the here-and-now and security i n the future because one took precautions even for the worst imaginable case, has been revoked in the age of nuclear, chemical and genetic technology. In their brilliant perfection, nuclear power plants have suspended the principle of insurance not only in the economic but also in the medical, psychological, cultural, and religious sense.The ‘residual risk society’ is an uninsured society, in which protection, paradoxically, decreases as the threat increases. For Beck, modernity is a world that introduces global risk parameters that previous generations have not had to face. Precisely because of the failure of modern social institutions to control the risks they have created, such as the ecological crisis, risk rebounds as a largely defensive attempt to avoid new problems and dangers. Beck contends that it is necessary to separate the notion of risk from hazard or danger.The hazards of pre-industrial society – famines, plagues, natural disasters – may or m ay not come close to the destructive potential of technoscience in the contemporary era. Yet for Beck this really is not a key consideration in any event, since he does not wish to suggest that daily life in today’s risk society is intrinsically more hazardous than in the pre-modern world. What he does suggest, however, is that no notion of risk is to be found in traditional culture: pre-industrial hazards or dangers, no matter how potentially catastrophic, were experienced as pre-given.They came from some ‘other’ – gods, nature or demons. With the beginning of societal attempts to control, and particularly with the idea of steering towards a future of predictable security, the consequences of risk become a political issue. This last point is crucial. It is societal intervention – in the form of decision-making – that transforms incalculable hazards into calculable risks. ‘Risks’, writes Beck (1997: 30), ‘always depend on d ecisions – that is, they presuppose decisions’.The idea of ‘risk society’ is thus bound up with the development of instrumental rational control, which the process of modernization promotes in all spheres of life – from individual risk of accidents and illnesses to export risks and risks of war. In support of the contention that protection from danger decreases as the threat increases in the contemporary era, Beck (1994) discusses, among many other examples, the case of a lead crystal factory in the former Federal Republic of Germany. The factory in question – Altenstadt in the Upper Palatinate – was prosecuted in the 1980s for polluting the atmosphere.Many residents in the area had, for some considerable time, suffered from skin rashes, nausea and headaches, and blame was squarely attributed to the white dust emitted from the factory’s smokestacks. Due to the visibility of the pollution, the case for damages against the factory was imagined, by many people, to be watertight. Downloaded from http://soc. sagepub. com by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 295 022761 Elliott 296 13/5/2002 Sociology 9:49 am Volume 36 s Page 296Number 2 s May 2002 However, because there were three other glass factories in the area, the presiding judge offered to drop the charges in return for a nominal ? ne, on the grounds that individual liability for emitting dangerous pollutants and toxins could not be established. ‘Welcome to the real-life travesty of the hazard technocracy! ’ writes Beck, underlining the denial of risks within our cultural and political structures. Such denial for Beck is deeply layered within institutions, and he calls this ‘organized irresponsibility’ – a concept to which we will return.The age of nuclear, chemical and genetic technology, according to Beck, unleashes a destruction of the calculus of risks by which modern societies have developed a consensus on progress. Insurance has been the key to sustaining this consensus, functioning as a kind of security pact against industrially produced dangers and hazards. 3 In particular, two kinds of insurance are associated with modernization: the private insurance company and public insurance, linked above all with the welfare state.Yet the changing nature of risk in an age of globalization, argues Beck, fractures the calculating of risks for purposes of insurance. Individually and collectively, we do not fully know or understand many of the risks that we currently face, let alone can we attempt to calculate them accurately in terms of probability, compensation and accountability. In this connection, Beck emphasizes the following: s s s s risks today threaten irreparable global damage which cannot be limited, and hus the notion of monetary compensation is rendered obsolescent; in the case of the wors t possible nuclear or chemical accident, any security monitoring of damages fails; accidents, now reconstituted as ‘events’ without beginning or end, break apart delimitations in space and time; notions of accountability collapse. Re? exive Modernization Beck develops his critique of modernity through an examination of the presuppositions of the sociology of modernization. Many mainstream sociological theories remain marked, in his view, by a confusion of modernity with industrial society – seen in either positive or negative terms.This is true for functionalists and Marxists alike, especially in terms of their preoccupation with industrial achievement, adaptation, differentiation and rationalization. Indeed, Beck ? nds an ideology of progress concealed within dominant social theories that equate modernization with linear rationalization. From Marx through Parsons to Luhmann, modern society is constantly changing, expanding and transforming itself; it is clear th at industrialism results in the using up of resources that are essential to the reproduction of society.But the most striking limitation of social theories that equate modernity with industrial society, according to Beck, lies in their lack of comprehension of the manner in which dangers to societal preservation and renewal in? ltrate the institutions, organizations and subsystems of modern society itself. Downloaded from http://soc. sagepub. com by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 022761 Elliott 13/5/2002 :49 am Page 297 Beck’s sociology of risk Elliott In contrast to this grand consensus on modernization, Beck argues that we are between industrial society and advanced modernity, between simple modernization and re? exive modernization. As Beck (1996b: 28) develops these distinctions: In view of these two stages and their sequence, the concept of ‘re? exive moder nization’ may be introduced. This precisely does not mean re? ection (as the adjective ‘re? exive’ seems to suggest), but above all self-confrontation.The transition from the industrial to the risk epoch of modernity occurs unintentionally, unseen, compulsively, in the course of a dynamic of modernization which has made itself autonomous, on the pattern of latent side-effects. One can almost say that the constellations of risk society are created because the self-evident truths of industrial society (the consensus on progress, the abstraction from ecological consequences and hazards) dominate the thinking and behaviour of human beings and institutions. Risk society is not an option which could be chosen or rejected in the course of political debate.It arises through the automatic operation of autonomous modernization processes which are blind and deaf to consequences and dangers. In total, and latently, these produce hazards which call into question – inde ed abolish – the basis of industrial society. It is the autonomous, compulsive dynamic of advanced or re? exive modernization that, according to Beck, propels modern men and women into ‘self-confrontation’ with the consequences of risk that cannot adequately be addressed, measured, controlled or overcome, at least according to the standards of industrial society.Modernity’s blindness to the risks and dangers produced by modernization – all of which happens automatically and unre? ectingly, according to Beck – leads to societal self-confrontation: that is, the questioning of divisions between centres of political activity and the decision-making capacity of society itself. Society, in effect, seeks to reclaim ‘the political’ from its modernist relegation to the institutional sphere, and this, says Beck, is achieved primarily through sub-political means – that is, locating the politics of risk at the heart of forms of social and cultural life. Within the horizon of the opposition between old routine and new awareness of consequences and dangers’, writes Beck, ‘society becomes self-critical’ (1999b: 81). The prospects for arresting the dark sides of industrial progress and advanced modernization through re? exivity are routinely short-circuited, according to Beck, by the insidious in? uence of ‘organized irresponsibility’. Irresponsibility, as Beck uses the term, refers to a political contradiction of the self-jeopardization and self-endangerment of risk society.This is a contradiction between an emerging public awareness of risks produced by and within the social-institutional system on the one hand, and the lack of attribution of systemic risks to this system on the other. There is, in Beck’s reckoning, a constant denial of the suicidal tendency of risk society – ‘the system of organized irresponsibility’ – which manifests itself in, s ay, technically orientated legal procedures designed to satisfy rigorous causal proof of individual liability and guilt. This self-created dead end, in which culpability is passed off on to individualsDownloaded from http://soc. sagepub. com by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 297 022761 Elliott 298 13/5/2002 Sociology 9:49 am Volume 36 s Page 298 Number 2 s May 2002 and thus collectively denied, is maintained through political ideologies of industrial fatalism: faith in progress, dependence on rationality and the rule of expert opinion. Individualization The arrival of advanced modernization is not wholly about risk; it is also about an expansion of choice.For if risks are an attempt to make the incalculable calculable, then risk-monitoring presupposes agency, choice, calculation and responsibility. In the process of re? exive modernization, Beck argues, more and more areas o f life are released or disembedded from the hold of tradition. That is to say, people living in the modernized societies of today develop an increasing engagement with both the intimate and more public aspects of their lives, aspects that were previously governed by tradition or taken-forgranted norms.This set of developments is what Beck calls ‘individualization’, and its operation is governed by a dialectic of disintegration and reinvention. For example, the disappearance of tradition and the disintegration of previously existing social forms – ? xed gender roles, in? exible class locations, masculinist work models – forces people into making decisions about their own lives and future courses of action.As traditional ways of doing things become problematic, people must choose paths for a more rewarding life – all of which requires planning and rationalization, deliberation and engagement. An active engagement with the self, with the body, with rel ationships and marriage, with gender norms, and with work: this is the subjective backdrop of the risk society. The idea of individualization is the basis upon which Beck constructs his vision of a ‘new modernity’, of novel personal experimentation and cultural innovation against a social backdrop of risks, dangers, hazards, re? xivity, globalization. Yet the unleashing of experimentation and choice which individualization brings is certainly not without its problems. According to Beck, there are progressive and regressive elements to individualization; although, in analytical terms, these are extremely hard to disentangle. In personal terms, the gains of today’s individualization might be tomorrow’s limitation, as advantage and progress turn into their opposite. A signal example of this is offered in The Normal Chaos of Love (1995), where Beck and Beck-Gernsheim re? ct on the role of technological innovation in medicine, and of how this impacts upon conte mporary family life. Technological advancements in diagnostic and genetic testing on the unborn, they argue, create new parental possibilities, primarily in the realm of health monitoring. However, the very capacity for medical intervention is one that quickly turns into an obligation on parents to use such technologies in order to secure a sound genetic starting point for their offspring.Individualization is seen here as a paradoxical compulsion, at once leading people into a much more engaged relationship with science and technology than used to be the case, and enforcing a set of obligations and responsibilities that few in society have thought through in terms of broad Downloaded from http://soc. sagepub. com by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 022761 Elliott 13/5/2002 9:49 am Page 299 Beck’s sociology of risk Elliott moral and ethical implications.It is perhaps lit tle wonder therefore that Beck (1997: 96), echoing Sartre, contends that ‘people are condemned to individualization’. Critique Beck has elaborated a highly original formulation of the theory of risk, a formulation which links with, but in many ways is more sophisticated in its detail and application than, other sociological approaches to the analysis of risk environments in contemporary society (among other contributions, see Douglas and Wildavsky (1982), Castell (1991), Giddens (1990, 1991), Luhmann (1993) and Adam (1998)).Beck’s sociology of risk has clearly been of increasing interest to sociologists concerned with understanding the complex temporal and spatial ? gurations of invisible hazards and dangers including global warming, chemical and petrochemical pollution, the effects of genetically modi? ed organisms and culturally induced diseases such as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) (see Lash et al. , 1996; Adam, 1998). In what follows, there are three core areas around which I shall develop a critique of the work of Beck: (1) risk, re? xivity, re? ection; (2) power and domination; and (3) tradition, modernity and postmodernization. Risk, Re? exivity, Re? ection Let me begin with Beck’s discussion of the ‘risk society’, which, according to him, currently dominates socio-political frames thanks to the twin forces of re? exivity and globalization. There are, I believe, many respects in which Beck’s vision of Risikogesellschaft, especially its rebounding in personal experience as risk-laden discourses and practices, is to be welcomed.In the wake of the Chernobyl disaster and widespread environmental pollution, and with ever more destructive weapons as well as human-made biological, chemical and technological hazards, it is surely the case that thinking in terms of risk has become central to the way in which human agents and modern institutions organize the social world. Indeed, in a world that could litera lly destroy itself, risk-managing and risk-monitoring increasingly in? uences both the constitution and calculation of social action.As mentioned previously, it is this focus on the concrete, objective physical-biological-technical risk settings of modernity which recommends Beck’s analysis as a useful corrective to the often obsessive abstraction and textual deconstruction that characterizes much recent social theory. However, one still might wonder whether Beck’s theory does not overemphasize, in a certain sense, the phenomena and relevance of risk. From a social-historical perspective it is plausible to ask, for instance, whether life in society has become more risky? In ‘From Regulation to Risk’, Bryan S. Turner (1994: 180–1) captures the problem well:Downloaded from http://soc. sagepub. com by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 299 022761 E lliott 300 13/5/2002 Sociology 9:49 am Volume 36 s Page 300 Number 2 s May 2002 [A] serious criticism of Beck’s arguments would be to suggest that risk has not changed so profoundly and signi? cantly over the last three centuries. For example, were the epidemics of syphilis and bubonic plague in earlier periods any different from the modern environment illnesses to which Beck draws our attention?That is, do Beck’s criteria of risk, such as their impersonal and unobservable nature, really stand up to historical scrutiny? The devastating plagues of earlier centuries were certainly global, democratic and general. Peasants and aristocrats died equally horrible deaths. In addition, with the spread of capitalist colonialism, it is clearly the case that in previous centuries many aboriginal peoples such as those of North America and Australia were engulfed by environmental, medical and political catastrophes which wiped out entire populations.If we take a broader view of the notion of risk as entailing at least a strong cultural element whereby risk is seen to be a necessary part of the human condition, then we could argue that the profound uncertainties about life, which occasionally overwhelmed earlier civilizations, were not unlike the anxieties of our own ? n-de-siecle civilizations. Extending Turner’s critique, it might also be asked whether risk assessment is the ultimate worry in the plight of individuals in contemporary culture?Is it right to see the means-ended rationality of risk, and thus the economistic language of preference, assessment and choice, as spreading into personal and intimate spheres of life (such as marriage, friendship and child-rearing) in such a determinate and uni? ed way? And does the concept of risk actually capture what is new and different in the contemporary social condition? I shall not pursue these general questions, important though they are, here. Instead, the issue I want to raise concerns the multiple ways in which risk is perceived, approached, engaged with or disengaged from, in contemporary culture.Beck’s approach, however suggestive it may be, is at best a signpost which points to speci? c kinds of probabilities, avoidances and unanticipated consequences, but which is limited in its grasp of the social structuring of the perception of risk. The American social theorist Jeffrey C. Alexander (1996: 135) has argued that Beck’s ‘unproblematic understanding of the perception of risk is utilitarian and objectivist’. Alexander takes Beck to task for adopting a rationalistic and instrumental-calculative model of risk in microsocial and macrosocial worlds; to which it can be added that such a model has deep af? ities with neo-classical economics and rational-choice theory, and thus necessarily shares the conceptual and political limitations of these standpoints also. Beck has also been criticized by others for his cognitive realism, moral proceduralism and lack of attention to aesthetic and hermeneutical subjectivity (Lash and Urry, 1994); failure to acknowledge the embodied nature of the self (Turner, 1994; Petersen, 1996); and neglect of the psychodynamic and affective dimensions of subjectivity and intersubjective relations (Elliott, 1996; Hollway and Jefferson, 1997).In a social-theoretical frame of reference, what these criticisms imply is that Beck’s theory cannot grasp the hermeneutical, aesthetic, psychological and culturally bounded forms of subjectivity and intersubjectivity in and through Downloaded from http://soc. sagepub. com by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 022761 Elliott 13/5/2002 9:50 am Page 301 Beck’s sociology of risk Elliott which risk is constructed and perceived.To study risk-management and riskavoidance strategies, in the light of these criticisms, requires attention to forms of meaning-making within socio-symbolically inscribed institutional ? elds, a problem to which I return in a subsequent section when looking at Beck’s analysis of tradition, modernity and postmodernity. In raising the issue of the construction and reconstruction of risk – in particular, its active interpretation and reconstruction – one might reference numerous studies of socio-political attitudes relating to the conceptualization and confrontation of risk, danger and hazard.The anthropologist Mary Douglas (1986, 1992), for example, argues that advanced industrial risks are primarily constructed through the rhetoric of purity and pollution. For Douglas, what is most pressing in the social-theoretic analysis of risk is an understanding of how human agents ignore many of the potential threats of daily life and instead concentrate only on selected aspects. Interestingly, Beck fails to discuss in any detail Douglas’s anthropology of risk. This would seem peculiar not only sin ce Douglas’s path-breaking analyses of risk appear to have laid much of the thematic groundwork for Beck’s sociological theory, but also because her work is highly relevant to the critique of contemporary ideologies of risk – that is, the social forms in which risk and uncertainty are differentiated across and within social formations, as well as peculiarly individuated. My purpose in underscoring these various limitations of Beck’s theory is not to engage in some exercise of conceptual clari? cation.My concern rather is to stress the sociologically questionable assumptions concerning risk in Beck’s work, and to tease out the more complex, nuanced forms of risk perception that might fall within the scope of such an approach. To call into question Beck’s notion of risk is, of course, also to raise important issues about the location of re? exivity between self and societal reproduction. Now it is the failure of simple, industrial society to c ontrol the risks it has created, which, for Beck, generates a more intensive and extensive sense of risk in re? xive, advanced modernity. In this sense, the rise of objective, physical, global risks propels social re? exivity. But again one might wish to question the generalizations Beck makes about human agents, modern institutions and culture becoming more re? exive or self-confronting. Much of Beck’s work has been concerned to emphasize the degree of re? exive institutional dynamism involved in the restructuring of personal, social and political life, from the reforging of intimate relationships to the reinvention of politics.But there are disturbing dimensions here as well, which the spread of cultural, ethnic, racial and gendered con? ict has shown only too well, and often in ways in which one would be hard pressed to ? nd forms of personal or social re? exive activity. No doubt Beck would deny – as he has done in his more recent writings – that the renewal of traditions and the rise of cultural con? icts are counterexamples to the thesis of re? exive modernization. For we need to be particularly careful, Beck contends, not to confuse re? exivity (self-dissolution) with re? ction (knowledge). As Beck (1994b: 176–7) develops this distinction: Downloaded from http://soc. sagepub. com by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 301 022761 Elliott 302 13/5/2002 Sociology 9:50 am Volume 36 s Page 302 Number 2 s May 2002 †¦ the ‘re? exivity’ of modernity and modernization in my sense does not mean re? ection on modernity, self-relatedness, the self-referentiality of modernity, nor does it mean the self-justi? ation or self-criticism of modernity in the sense of classical sociology; rather (? rst of all), modernization undercuts modernization, unintended and unseen, and therefore also re? ection-free, with the force of autonomized modernization. †¦ [R]e? exivity of modernity can lead to re? ection on the self-dissolution and self-endangerment of industrial society, but it need not do so. Thus, re? exivity does not imply a kind of hyper-Enlightenment culture, where agents and institutions re? ect on modernity, but rather an unintended self-modi? ation of forms of life driven by the impact of autonomized processes of modernization. Re? exivity, on this account, is de? ned as much by ‘re? ex’ as it is by ‘re? ection’. ‘It is possible to detect’, write Lash et al. (1996) of Beck’s recent sociology, ‘a move towards seeing re? exive modernization as in most part propelled by blind social processes – a shift, crudely, from where risk society produces re? ection which in turn produces re? exivity and critique, to one where risk society automatically produces re? exivity, and then – perhaps – re? ection’.Without wishing t o deny the interest of this radical conception of re? exivity as self-dissolution, it still seems to me that Beck’s contention that contemporary societies are propelled toward self-confrontation, split between re? ex and re? ection, remains dubious. In what sense, for instance, can one claim that re? ection-free forms of societal self-dissolution exist independently of the re? ective capacities of human agents? For what, exactly, is being dissolved, if not the forms of life and social practices through which institutions are structured?How might the analytical terms of re? exivity, that is social re? exes (nonknowledge) and re? ection (knowledge), be reconciled? It may be thought that these dif? culties can be overcome by insisting, along with Beck, on re? exivity in the strong sense – as the unseen, the unwilled, the unintended; in short, institutional dynamism. But such an account of blind social processes is surely incompatible with, and in fact renders incoherent, concepts of re? ection, referentiality, re? exivity.Alternatively, a weaker version of the argument might be developed, one that sees only partial and contextual interactions of selfdissolution and re? ection. Yet such an account, again, would seem to cut the analytical ground from under itself, since there is no adequate basis for showing how practices of re? exivity vary in their complex articulations of re? ex and re? ection or repetition and creativity. Power and Domination I now want to consider Beck’s theory in relation to sociological understandings of power and domination. According to Beck, re? xive modernization combats many of the distinctive characteristics of power, turning set social divisions into active negotiated relationships. Traditional political con? icts, centred around class, race and gender, are increasingly superseded by new, globalized risk con? icts. ‘Risks’, writes Beck (1992: 35), ‘display an equalizing effect’. Everyone Downloaded from http://soc. sagepub. com by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 022761 Elliott 13/5/2002 9:50 am Page 303 Beck’s sociology of risk Elliott ow is threatened by risk of global proportions and repercussions; not even the rich and powerful can escape the new dangers and hazards of, say, global warming or nuclear war. And it is from this universalized perspective that Beck argues political power and domination is shedding the skin of its classical forms and reinventing itself in a new global idiom. The problematic nature of Beck’s writings on this reinvention of political power and its role in social life, however, becomes increasingly evident when considering his analysis of social inequalities and cultural divisions.Take, for example, his re? ections on class. Re? exive modernization, says Beck, does not result in the self-destruction of class antagonis ms, but rather in selfmodi? cation. He writes (1997: 26): Re? exive modernization disembeds and re-embeds the cultural prerequisites of social classes with forms of individualization of social inequality. That means †¦ that the disappearance of social classes and the abolition of social inequality no longer coincide. Instead, the blurring of social classes (in perception) runs in tandem with an exacerbation of social inequality, which now does not follow large identi? ble groups in the lifeworld, but is instead fragmented across (life) phases, space and time. The present-day individualizing forces of social inequality, according to Beck, erode class-consciousness (personal dif? culties and grievances no longer culminate into group or collective causes) and also, to some considerable degree, class-in-itself (contemporary social problems are increasingly suffered alone). In short, class as a community of fate or destiny declines steeply. With class solidarities replaced by brittl e and uncertain forms of individual self-management, Beck ? ds evidence for a ‘rule-altering rationalization’ of class relationships in new business and management practices, as well as industrial relations reforms. He contends that new blendings of economics and democracy are discernible in the rise of political civil rights within the workplace, a blend which opens the possibility of a post-capitalistic world – a ‘classless capitalism of capital’, in which ‘the antagonism between labour and capital will collapse’. There is considerable plausibility in the suggestion that class patterns and divisions have been altered by rapid social and political changes in recent years.These include changes in employment and the occupational structure, the expansion of the service industries, rising unemployment, lower retirement ages, as well as a growing individualization in the West together with an accompanying stress upon lifestyle, consumption a nd choice. However, while it might be the case that developments associated with re? exive modernization and the risk society are affecting social inequalities, it is surely implausible to suggest, as Beck does, that this involves the trans? guration of class as such. Why, as Scott Lash (Beck et al. , 1994: 211) asks, do we ? nd re? xivity in some sectors of socio-economic life and not others? Against the backdrop of new communication technologies and advances in knowledge transfer, vast gaps in the sociocultural conditions of the wealthy and the poor drastically affect the ways in which individuals are drawn into the project of re? exive modernization. These Downloaded from http://soc. sagepub. com by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 303 022761 Elliott 304 13/5/2002 Sociology 9:50 am Volume 36 s Page 304 Number 2 s May 2002 ensions are especially evident today in new social d ivisions between the ‘information rich’ and ‘information poor’, and of the forces and demands of such symbolic participation within the public sphere. What Beck fails to adequately consider is that individualization (while undoubtedly facilitating unprecedented forms of personal and social experimentation) may directly contribute to, and advance the proliferation of, class inequalities and economic exclusions. That is to say, Beck fails to give suf? cient sociological weight to the possibility that individualization may actually embody systematically asymmetrical relations of class power.Taken from a broader view of the ideals of equal opportunity and social progress, Beck’s arguments about the relationship between advanced levels of re? exivity and the emergence of a new sub-politics do not adequately stand up to scrutiny. The general, tendential assertions he advances about business and organizational restructuring assume what needs to be demonstra ted – namely, that these new organizational forms spell the demise of social class, as well as the viability of class analysis. Moreover, it seems implausible to point to ‘subpolitics’, de? ned by Beck only in very general terms, as symptomatic of a new socio-political agenda.When, for example, have the shifting boundaries between the political and economic spheres not played a primary role in the unfolding of relations between labour and capital? Is decision-making and consciousness really focused on a post-capitalistic rationalization of rights, duties, interests and decisions? A good deal of recent research shows, on the contrary, that income inequality between and within nations continues to escalate (Braun, 1991; Lemert, 1997); that class (together with structures of power and domination) continues to profoundly shape possible life chances and material nterests (Westergaard, 1995); and that the many different de? nitions of class as a concept, encompassing t he marginal, the excluded as well as the new underclass or new poor, are important in social analysis for comprehending the persistence of patterns of social inequality (Crompton, 1996). These dif? culties would suggest that Beck’s theory of risk requires reformulation in various ways.Without wishing to deny that the risk-generating propensity of the social system has rapidly increased in recent years due to the impact of globalization and techno-science, it seems to me misleading to contend that social division in multinational capitalist societies is fully trans? gured into a new logic of risk, as if the latter disconnects the former from its institutionalized biases and processes. The more urgent theoretical task, I suggest, is to develop methods of analysis for explicating how patterns of power and domination feed into, and are reconstituted by, the socio-symbolic structuring of risk.Here I shall restrict myself to noting three interrelated forces, which indicate, in a ge neral way, the contours of how a politics of risk is undergoing transformation. The ? rst development is that of the privatization of risk. Underpinned by new trans-national spatializations of economic relations as well as the deregulation of the government of political life (Giddens, 1990; Hirst and Thompson, 1996; Bauman, 1998), the individual is increasingly viewed today as an active Downloaded from http://soc. sagepub. om by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 022761 Elliott 13/5/2002 9:50 am Page 305 Beck’s sociology of risk Elliott agent in the risk-monitoring of collectively produced dangers; risk-information, risk-detection and risk-management is more and more constructed and designed as a matter of private responsibility and personal security. By and large, human agents confront socially produced risks individually.Risk is desocialized; risk-exposure and risk-avoi dance is a matter of individual responsibility and navigation. This is, of course, partly what Beck means by the individualization of risk. However, the relations between individualized or privatized risk, material inequalities and the development of global poverty are more systematic and complex than Beck’s theory seems to recognize. In the post-war period, the shift from Keynesian to monetarist economic policies has been a key factor in the erosion of the management of risk through welfare security.The impact of globalization, transnational corporations and governmental deregulation is vital to the social production of the privatization of risk, all of which undoubtedly has a polarizing effect on distributions of wealth and income. It has also become evident – and this is crucial – that one must be able to deploy certain educational resources, symbolic goods, cultural and media capabilities, as well as cognitive and affective aptitudes, in order to count as a ‘player’ in the privatization of risk-detection and risk-management.People who cannot deploy such resources and capabilities, often the result of various material and class inequalities, are likely to ? nd themselves further disadvantaged and marginalized in a new world order of re? exive modernization. The second, related development concerns the commodi? cation of risk. Millions of dollars are made through product development, advertising, and market research in the new industries of risk, which construct new problems and market new solutions for risk-? ghting individual agents. As risk is simultaneously proliferated and rendered potentially manageable’, writes Nikolas Rose (1996: 342), ‘the private market for â€Å"security† extends: not merely personal pension schemes and private health insurance, but burglar alarms, devices that monitor sleeping children, home testing kits for cholesterol levels and much more. Protection against risk through an investment in security becomes part of the responsibilities of each active individual, if they are not to feel guilt at failing to protect themselves and their loved ones against future misfortunes’.In other words, the typical means for insuring against risk today is through market-promoted processes. However the fundamental point here, and this is something that Beck fails to develop in a systematic manner, is that such ‘insurance’ is of a radically imaginary kind (with all the misrecognition and illusion that the Lacanian-Althusserian theorization of the duplicate mirror-structure of ideology implies), given that one cannot really buy one’s way out of the collective dangers that confront us as individuals and societies. How does one, for example, buy a way out from the dangers of global warming?The commodi? cation of risk has become a kind of safe house for myths, fantasies, ? ction and lies. The third development concerns the instrumentalization of iden tities in terms of lifestyle, consumption and choice. Beck touches on this issue through the individualization strand of his argument. Yet because he sees individualiza- Downloaded from http://soc. sagepub. com by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 305 022761 Elliott 306 13/5/2002 Sociology 9:50 am Volume 36 s Page 306 Number 2 s May 2002 ion as an active process transforming risk society, he pays almost no attention to the kinds of affective ‘investments’, often destructive and pathological, unleashed by an instrumentalization of identities and social relations. Of core importance here is the ‘culture of narcissism’ (Lasch, 1980) which pervades contemporary Western life, and plays a powerful role in the instrumental affective investments in individuals which a risk society unleashes. Joel Kovel (1988) writes of ‘the de-sociation of the narcissist ic character’, a character lacking in depth of emotional attachment to others and communities.Unable to sustain a sense of personal purpose or social project, the narcissistic character, writes Kovel, rarely moves beyond instrumentality in dealing with other people. Such instrumental emotional investments may well be increasingly central to the management of many risk codes in contemporary culture. Consider the ways in which some parents fashion a narcissistic relation with their own children as a kind of imaginary risk-insurance (involving anxieties and insecurities over old age, mortality and the like), rather than relating to their offspring as independent individuals in their own right.Also in risks relating to the home, personal comfort as well as safety, hygiene, health and domesticity, the veneer-like quality of pathological narcissism can be found. Some analytical caution is, of course, necessary here, primarily because the work on narcissistic culture of Lasch and Se nnett, among others, has been criticized in terms of over-generalization (Giddens, 1991: 174–80). Accordingly, it may be more plausible to suggest that narcissistic forms of identity are a tendency within contemporary cultural relations of risk management, and not a wholesale social trend.Beck’s writings, I am suggesting, are less than satisfying on issues of power and domination because he fails to analyse in suf? cient depth the psychological, sociological and political forces by means of which the self-risk dialectic takes its varying forms. To develop a more nuanced interpretative and critical approach, I have suggested, the sociological task is to analyse privatization, commodi? cation and instrumentalization as channels of risk management. Tradition, Modernity, Postmodernity The limitations in the concept of re? xivity I have highlighted are, in turn, connected to further ambiguities concerning the nature of social reproduction in contemporary culture. The produc tion and reproduction of contemporary social life is viewed by Beck as a process of ‘detraditionalization’. The development of re? exive modernization, says Beck, is accompanied by an irreversible decline in the role of tradition; the re? exivity of modernity and modernization means that traditional forms of life are increasingly exposed to public scrutiny and debate. That the dynamics of social re? xivity undercut pre-existing traditions is emphasized by Beck via a range of social-theoretical terms. He speaks of ‘the age of side-effects’, of individualization, and of a sub-politics beyond left and right – a world in which people can and must come to terms with the opportunities and dangers of new technologies, markets, experts, systems and Downloaded from http://soc. sagepub. com by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 022761 Elliott 13/5/2002 9:5 0 am Page 307 Beck’s sociology of risk Elliott nvironments. Beck thus argues that the contemporary age is one characterized by increased levels of referentiality, ambivalence, ? exibility, openness and social alternatives. It might be noted that certain parallels can be identi? ed between the thesis of detraditionalization and arguments advanced in classical social theory. Many classical social theorists believed that the development of the modern era spelled the end of tradition. ‘All that is solid melts into air’, said Marx of the power of the capitalist mode of production to tear apart traditional forms of social life.That the dynamics of capitalism undercut its own foundations meant for Marx a society that was continually transforming and constantly revolutionizing itself. Somewhat similar arguments about the decline of tradition can be found in the writings of Max Weber. The development of industrial society for Weber was inextricably intertwined with the ri se of the bureaucratic state. Weber saw in this bureaucratic rationalization of action, and associated demand for technical ef? ciency, a new social logic destructive of the traditional texture of society.The views of Marx and Weber, among others, thus advanced a general binary opposition of ‘the traditional’ and ‘the modern’. For proponents of the thesis of detraditionalization, such as Beck, the self-referentiality and social re? exivity of advanced modernity also necessarily implies that traditional beliefs and practices begin to break down. However, the thesis of detraditionalization is not premised upon the broad contrast between ‘the traditional’ and ‘the modern’ that we can discern in much classical social theory. On the contrary, Beck ? nds the relation between tradition and modernity at once complex and puzzling.If tradition remains an important aspect of advanced modernity, it is because tradition becomes re? exive; tradi tions are invented, reinvented and restructured in conditions of the late modern age. So far I think that there is much that is interesting and important in this general orientation of Beck to understanding the construction of the present, past and future. In particular, I think the stress placed upon the re? exive construction of tradition, and indeed all social reproduction, is especially signi? cant – even though I shall go on to argue that this general theoretical framework requires more speci? ation and elaboration. I want, however, to focus on a speci? c issue raised by Beck’s social theory, and ask, has the development of society toward advanced modernization been accompanied by a decline in the in? uence of tradition and traditional understandings of the past? Must we assume, as Beck seems to, that the social construction of tradition is always permeated by a pervasive re? exivity? At issue here, I suggest, is the question of how the concept of re? exivity shou ld be related to traditional, modern and postmodern cultural forms. I shall further suggest that the concept of re? xivity, as elaborated by Beck, fails to comprehend the different modernist and postmodernist ? gurations that may be implicit within social practices and symbolic forms of the contemporary age. In order to develop this line of argumentation, let us consider in some more detail the multiplicity of world traditions, communities and cultures as they impact upon current social practices and life-strategies. I believe that Beck is Downloaded from http://soc. sagepub. com by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 07 022761 Elliott 308 13/5/2002 Sociology 9:50 am Volume 36 s Page 308 Number 2 s May 2002 right to emphasize the degree to which modernity and advanced modernization processes have assaulted traditions, uprooted local communities and broken apart unique regional, e thnic and sub-national cultures. At the level of economic analysis, an argument can plausibly be sustained that the erratic nature of the world capitalist economy produces high levels of unpredictability and uncertainty in social life and cultural relations, all of which Beck analyses in terms of danger, risk and hazard.It is worth noting, however, that Beck’s emphasis on increasing levels of risk, ambivalence and uncertainty is at odds with much recent research in sociology and social theory that emphasizes the regularization and standardization of daily life in the advanced societies. George Ritzer’s The McDonaldization of Society (1993) is a signal example. Drawing Weber’s theory of social rationalization and the Frankfurt School’s account of the administered society into a re? ctive encounter, Ritzer examines the application of managerial techniques such as Fordism and Taylorism to the fast food industry as symptomatic of the in? ltration of instrumen tal rationality into all aspects of cultural life. McDonaldization, as Ritzer develops the term, is the emergence of social logics in which risk and unpredictability are written out of social space. The point about such a conception of the standardization of everyday life, whatever its conceptual and sociological shortcomings, is that it clearly contradicts Beck’s stress on increasing risk and uncertainty, the concept of re? xive individualization, and the notion that detraditionalization produces more ambivalence, more anxiety, and more openness. Of course, Beck insists that re? exive modernization does not mark a complete break from tradition; rather re? exivity signals the revising, or reinvention, of tradition. However, the resurgence and persistence of ethnicity and nationality as a primary basis for the elaboration of traditional beliefs and practices throughout the world is surely problematic for those who, like Beck, advance the general thesis of social re? exivity.Ce rtainly, the thesis would appear challenged by widespread and recently revitalized patterns of racism, sexism and nationalism which have taken hold in many parts of the world, and indeed many serious controversies over race, ethnicity and nationalism involve a reversion to what might be called traditionalist battles over traditional culture – witness the rise of various religious fundamentalisms in the United States, the Middle East and parts of Africa and Asia. These political and theoretical ambivalences have their roots in a number of analytical dif? ulties, speci? cally Beck’s diagnosis of simple and advanced modernity. Beck furnishes only the barest social-historical sketch of simple modernity as a distinctive period in the spheres of science, industry, morality and law. He underscores the continuing importance and impact of simple industrial society for a range of advanced, re? exive determinations (for example politically, economically, technologically and envir onmentally), yet the precise relations of such overlapping are not established or demonstrated in any detail.Exactly how we have moved into the age of re? exive modernization, although often stated and repeated, is not altogether clear. Beck’s main line of explanation seems to focus on the side-effects of modernization as undercutting the Downloaded from http://soc. sagepub. com by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 022761 Elliott 13/5/2002 9:50 am Page 309 Beck’s sociology of risk Elliott foundations of modernity. But, again, the dynamics of simple and re? xive modernization, together with their social-historical periodization, remain opaque. In addition, it is not always clear how Beck is intending to draw certain conceptual distinctions between ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ instantiations of respectively simple and advanced modernist socio- symbolic figurations. Rejecting outright any crude opposition between traditional and modern societies, Beck relates a tale of the proliferation of re? exive biographies and practices, lives and institutions, in which creative possibilities develop and new forms of risk and hazard take shape.Yet social advancement is far from inevitable: Beck speaks of counter-modernities. The question that needs to be asked here, however, is whether it is analytically useful for social theory to construct the contemporary age as characterized by interacting tropes of industrial society and re? exive modernization on the one side, and a range of countermodernities on the other. Viewed from the frame of postmodern social theory, and in particular the sociology of postmodernity (see Bauman, 1992a), Beck’s argument concerning the circularity of the relationship between risk, re? xivity and social knowledge appears in a more problematic, and perhaps ultimately inadequate, light. For postmodern so cial theorists and cultural analysts diagnose the malaise of present-day society not only as the result of re? exively applied knowledge to complex techno-scienti? c social environments, but as infused by a more general and pervasive sense of cultural disorientation. The most prominent anxieties that underpin postmodern dynamics of social regulation and systemic reproduction include a general loss of belief in the engine of progress, as well as feelings of out-of-placeness and loss of direction.Such anxieties or dispositions are accorded central signi? cance in the writings of a number of French theorists – notably, Foucault, Derrida, Lyotard, Baudrillard, and Deleuze and Guattari – and also in the work of sociologists and social scientists interested in the rami? cations of post-structuralism, semiotics and deconstruction for the analysis of contemporary society (Lash and Urry, 1987; Harvey, 1989; Poster, 1990; Best and Kellner, 1991; Smart, 1992, 1993; Bauman, 1992a, 2000; Elliott, 1996).Postmodern anxieties or dispositions are, broadly speaking, cast as part of a broader cultural reaction to universal modernism’s construction of the social world, which privileges rationalism, positivism and techno-scienti? c planning. Premised upon a vigorous philosophical denunciation of humanism, abstract reason, and the Enlightenment legacy, postmodern theory rejects the metanarratives of modernity (that is, totalistic theoretical constructions, allegedly of universal application) and instead embraces fragmentation, discontinuity and ambiguity as symptomatic of current cultural conditions.To express the implications of these theoretical departures more directly in terms of the current discussion, if the social world in which we live in the 21st century is signi? cantly different from that of the simple modernization, this is so because of both socio-political and epistemological developments. It is not only re? ection on the globalization of risk tha t has eroded faith in humanly engineered progress. Postmodern contributions stress that the plurality of Downloaded from http://soc. sagepub. om by Madhu Menon on September 24, 2007  © 2002 BSA Publications Ltd.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. 309 022761 Elliott 310 13/5/2002 Sociology 9:50 am Volume 36 s Page 310 Number 2 s May 2002 heterogeneous claims to knowledge carries radical consequences for the unity and coherence of social systems. Bluntly stated, a number of core issues are identi? ed by postmodern analysts in this connection: s s s The crisis of representation, instabilities of meaning, and fracturing of knowledge claims;The failure of the modernist project to ground epistemology in secure foundations; The wholesale transmutation in modes of representation within social life itself. Postmodernization in this context spells the problematization of the relationship between signi? er and referent, representation and reality, a re lationship made all the more complex by the computerization of information and knowledge (Poster, 1990). What I am describing as a broadly postmodern sociological viewpoint highlights the de? iency of placing ‘risk’ (or any other sociological variable) as the central paradox of modernity. For at a minimum, a far wider range of sources would appear to condition our current cultural malaise. What is signi? cant about these theoretical sightings, or glimpses, of the contours of postmodernity as a social system are that they lend themselves to global horizons and de? nitions more adequately than the so-called universalism of Beck’s sociology of risk.Against a theoretical backdrop of the break with foundationalism, the dispersion of language games, coupled with the recognition that history has no overall teleology, it is surely implausible to stretch the notion of risk as a basis for interpretation of phenomena from, say, an increase in worldwide divorce rates through to the collapse of insurance as a principle for the regulation of collective life. Certainly, there may exist some family resemblance in trends surrounding new personal, social and political agendas.Yet the seeds of personal transformation and social dislocation are likely to be a good deal more complex, multiple, discontinuous. This is why the change of mood – intellectual, social, cultural, psychological, political and economic – analysed by postmodern theorists has more far-reaching consequences for sociological analysis and research into modernity and postmodernization than does the work of Beck. In Beck’s sociology, the advent of advanced modernization is related to the changing social and technological dimensions of just one institutional sector: that of risk and its calculation.The key problem of re? exive modernization is one of living with a high degree of risk in a world where traditional safety nets (the welfare state, traditional nuclear family, etc . ) are being eroded or dismantled. But what is