Justice Is Under Threat in the Risk Society’, Is Barbara Hudson Right to Argue This?

Modernism Modernism begins with World War I and the Great Depression and is the rejection of tradition. Writers in this time era began to question the authority and tradition that seemed to be the foundation of America. Modernists destroyed the American Dream. The modernist group ask themselves three questions. Who are we?

Though the start of the modernisation may trace back to the beginning of Industrial Revolution. “Modernism in the design world did not exist in a fully developed form, until well after First World War.” (Wilk, 2006) Causing the great loss of lives and other countless damage to the world, it reshaped many people’s way of thinking the world. With the inspiration of early avant-garde movement, the modernism began to emerge advocating an utopian future and shared certain core principles by various styles of modernists: rejecting the past and applied ornament; forms follow function, a preference for

The urban-rural culture wars of the 1920’s was due to myriad changes occurring in society, and partly in cause of a new generation, angered by the events of World War I, wanting to take a stand. Exposure to different types of culture in the 1920s varied on where one lived. In urban places, like bustling cities, one could find modernists. Modernists were more open-minded and liberal in their thoughts. In other words, they obtained a “new-school” way of thinking. Those in rural places who were not exposed to the always-changing city life, were more likely to be traditionalists and focused on practices, values and views from the past. Furthermore, modernists, from the city, and traditionalists, from the countryside, did not see eye to eye. This issue resurfaced several times in major events of the 1920s.

At risk has an unspoken meaning. At risk is synonymous with at-risk-youth in Western Culture. At risk is a phrase used in human services, the media, academia and government to identify young people who are troubling or on the fringe of risky behavior. If you do a Google search of the phrase at risk over 13 million images will appear most of which are of young people. Risk Discourse creates a risk society in response to specific populations being on the fringe of what is deemed “normal” within society. Risk discourse is a popular modernity term written at length by Modernist such as Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens European Sociologists. A Risk Society was not even a term until the 1980s. In the 1990s Risk Society became popular and it acceptance coincided with the infiltration of Risk Discourse into sociology, politics, literature and academia. There is an ongoing debate as to whether environmental concerns created a vacuum for a risk society or if it was a by-product of immigration and the War on Drugs. Either way Risk Discourse and risk society language terms are here to stay. Peter Kelly poses a question asking if young people are a society’s most precious resource then what does society need to do to adequately utilize this resource. He separates young people into categories of income, young people are exposed to high-risk setting more frequently than high income youths. Peter Kelly makes this separation to demonstrate there is inadequate research available on young

Modernism is the heartbeat of culture, or as Clement Greenberg (1992:754) states, modernism involves of what “is truly alive in our culture” and it includes more than just art and literature. Western civilization began to interrogate their foundations and progressed into a self-critical society (Greenberg 1992:754). This notion began with the theories of the philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804); he criticized the means itself of criticism (Greenberg 1992:754). Therefore, Greenberg (1992:754) perceived Kant as the first real Modernist.

Published in 1989, Modris Eksteins’ book, “Rites of Spring” argues that World War I, with Germany specifically as a catalyst, is the turning point of modernism. As Eksteins explains it, World War I was the final battle between the old world and the new, modern, world. To put it simply: England and her allies represented the old ways, while Germany and her allies represented new ways. Eksteins believed that the end of the nineteenth century was filled with urges for modernism with Germany leading the way as the “modernist nation par excellence of our century” Throughout the three acts of his novel, Eksteins continues to address how Germany, and both world wars, managed to battle the old ways of the nineteenth century and as a result continue into the twentieth century with humanity completely disillusioned as a whole.

In the time since the Middle Ages, the West has experienced a number of radical shifts, both politically and ideologically. Each of these shifts has “broken the previous pattern” of cultural norms. But while some have been beneficial, others have caused injustices and suffering. Either way, each of these events has had a dramatic effect on world history, and will likely never be forgotten.

The mistrust of the world which is at the center of modernism can be attributed to the world wars and the psychological effect that it had on the individual. The horrors and violence altered public perceptions of life, a change that is evident within writers of the time period. The focus of writing shifted from the outward world to inner thoughts and feelings and overall representation of an individual’s stream of consciousness which are themes associated with modern text. In “Impact of Modernism”, focuses on the idea that world needed new outlets for expression and in finding them rejected the tradition that was already there with the quote, “Many modernists believed that by rejecting tradition they could discover radically new ways of making art.” (Impact) .The world no longer had the beauty it once did so a a discovery of new arts were needed. The mind of an individual became that new found inspiration and beauty that modern writers needed and for that reason it was one of the main focuses of modern

The formative years of the 1900’s, suffered from communism, fascism, and capitalism. The author of the Brave New World, Mr. Aldous Huxley lived in a social order in which he had been exposed to all three of these systems. In the society of the Brave New World, which is set 600 years into the future, individuality is not condoned and the special motto “Community, Identity, Stability” frames the structure of the Totalitarian Government.

To fully appreciate the differences and similarities between Postmodernism and Modernism, it is required to understand exactly what they are. Modernism is the term we give to the accumulated creations and activities of designers in the early 20th century, who had the theory that traditional forms of literature, religion, social organization, and most of all, art and architecture, had become outdated in the new social, political, and economic environment of a fully industrialised world. One of the main characteristics of Modernism is self-consciousness, which typically caused exstensive experimentations of form and function. The creative process of generating work was also explored, forming new techniques in design. Modernism rejected all ideology of realism and prefers to reference and parody works of the past. Postmodernism, on the other hand, is a radical rejection of Modernist design. Taking place in the late 20th century, it is a movement in art, criticism, and architecture that disputes the majority of modernist tendencies. The Postmodernist analysis of society and culture lead to the expansion of critical theory and advanced the works of architecture, literature, and design. This entire re-evaluation of the western value system of popular culture, love, marriage, economy, that took place from the 1950s and 60s, leading to the peak of the Social Revolution in 1968, is commonly referred as Postmodernity which influenced postmodern thought, as opposed to the term

The risk society thesis by Ulrich Beck has been one of the most extensively discussed frameworks in environmental management (Matten, 2004). Ulrich Beck who is a German sociologist is the up-to-date theorist of modernity. Beck maintains that the risk which is intrinsic in modern society characterized by technological industrialization produces new forms of global risk society. Beck’s theory is based on the premise that the post-modernist world that we live considers safety and collective decision making on risk as more crucial than amassing wealth.

In Michael Sandel’s video, Justice: What’s The Right Thing To Do, very valuable moral questions are interpreted such as why does Rawls use the ‘veil of ignorance’ and a hypothetical contract rather than an actual contract to establish principles of justice? Another concept of investigation involves the question of whether or not Rawls is correct to use an hypothetical contract.

Beck (2000, 2006, 2007), Bauman (2000), and Standing (2011) constructed this recent concept to explain how old social classes have dissolved in importance to give way to new inequalities, inequalities in risk distribution. Beck even goes as far as calling contemporary societies ‘risk societies’ (Beck, 1992). According to Individualisation theorists, risk is becoming a part of everyday life: through work (i.e. employment flexibility, job flexibility, skill flexibility) (Standing, 2011), education (i.e. greater stress on education and training) (Mythen, 2005), consumption (i.e. risk of climate change, pollution, etc.) or even through the risk of catastrophes (i.e. incidents such as Chernobyl or 9/11) (Beck, 2001). However, through disparities in education, incomes etc., risk is also becoming unequally distributed while giving rise to new inequalities which do not fit into the old class schemas (Standing, 2011).

Over the decades, the concept of justice has been continually evolving. This is occurring based upon different moral or legal interpretations. Evidence of this can be seen with observations from Burke (2011) who said, "Few things are of more importance to a society than its concept of justice. This is because it is justice that provides criterion for the legitimate use of force. In the name of justice people are detained, arrested, handcuffed, put on trial and punished. This concept is used to provide every society with some kind of social order. Over the last 200 years, a revolution has taken place with these principles. Our idea of it is what we employ, when dealing with ordinary individuals in daily life including: making agreements, paying bills, resolving disputes and putting criminals in jail. This is a concept that is as old as recorded history and it is familiar to people everywhere. What makes it so unique is that these ideas are constantly changing which focuses on society as a whole and how people are interacting with each other. " (Burke)

"Risk society" means that we live in a world out of control. There is nothing certain but uncertainty. But let's go into details. The term "risk" has two radically different meanings. It applies in the first place to a world governed entirely by the laws of probability, in which everything is measurable and calculable. But the word is also commonly used to refer to non-quantitative uncertainties, to "risks that cannot be known." When I speak about "risk society," it is in this latter sense of manufactured uncertainties. These "true" uncertainties, enforced by rapid technological innovations and accelerated societal responses, are creating a fundamentally new