TESTI / 1 / Joshua Yates /
Ulrich Beck has elaborated an original formulation of the theory of risk and reflexive modernization, a formulation that has had a significant impact not only upon sociological theorizing and research. In this interview, Beck goes through several problems of risk society (fear and commonality of anxiety, power, community of fate, culture of uncertainty), taking into account the key distinction between risk and catastrophe. Risk does not mean catastrophe. Risk means the anticipation of catastrophe. Risks exist in a permanent state of virtuality, and become ‘topical’ only to the extent that they are anticipated.
