1st Edition

Risk A Sociological Theory

By Niklas Luhmann Copyright 2002
    270 Pages
    by Routledge

    272 Pages
    by Routledge

    A great deal of attention has been devoted to risk research. Sociologists in general have limited themselves to varying recognitions of a society at risk and have traced out the paths to disaster. The detailed research has yet to be undertaken. In Risk, now available in paperback, Niklas Luhmann develops a theoretical program for such research. His premise is that the concept of risk projects essential aspects of our description of the future onto the present. Risk is conceived as the possibility of triggering unexpected, unlikely, and detrimental consequences by means of a decision attributable to a decision maker.

    Introduction to the AldineTransaction Edition, Introduction, Chapter 1 The Concept of Risk, Chapter 2 The Future as Risk, Chapter 3 Time Binding: Material and Social Aspects, Chapter 4 The Risk of Observing and the Coding of Function Systems, Chapter 5 The Special Case of High Technology, Chapter 6 Decision Makers and Those Affected, Chapter 7 Protest Movements, Chapter 8 Demands on Politics, Chapter 9 Risk in the Economic System, Chapter 10 Risky Behaviour in Organizations, Chapter 11 And Science?, Chapter 12 Second-Order Observation, Index

    Biography

    Niklas Luhmann