ESSHC Panel: The Risk Society Revisited
Past, present and prospects of modernity: material settings, cultural experiences and intellectual expectations.

Call for papers for ESSHC session, Valencia 30 March-2 April 2016, organised by HCM*

Traditionally, modern society has been defined as industrial society. This definition has given rise to many economic and sociological analyses. Stimulated by the cultural turn, interest in the intellectual background of modernity has been growing. From a more anthropological point of view the exploration of modern experiences has resulted in many studies about local, regional and cross-cultural practices. These successive stages of the analysis of modernity, ranging from economic and social through cultural and postcolonial approaches, have led to a division of academic labour that has resulted in an embarrassment of riches, in specialisation and fragmentation. The material effects of modernity often are studied separately from their cultural dimensions. Science and Technology Studies, Economics, Sociology and Studies of Social Engineering still tend to neglect the cultural experience of and in modern society. On the other hand, the analysis of cultural and political expectations – hopeful or pessimistic – that accompany phenomena such as ICT, climate change, social surveillance and cultural control are seldom informed by knowledge of the material, technological (im)possibilities.

Our aim is to try and integrate these existing material and cultural strands of enquiry by taking the risk society as a focal point, defined by the late Ulrich Beck as ‘… a systematic way of dealing with hazards and insecurities induced and introduced by modernisation itself’ (Beck 1992). Similar to Beck, sociologist Anthony Giddens coined the term ‘risk culture’. This sociological perspective underlines risk as a characteristic feature of contemporary societies since the 1970s, focusing on health protection, insurance, environmental danger and the role of science and technology. Historians have argued for the importance of an historical analysis of the break created by, and the features of, risk society (Boudia and Jas 2007). We propose an Ulrich Beck Memorial-session on the promises and risks of modernity, elaborating on this historical perspective, while at the same time adding a cultural-historical approach to the study of science, economics, politics and law. This involves attention to the material culture of modernity including its social, political and cultural technologies as well as its knowledge practices.

We especially invite contributions with an eye on sustainable societies. Not only the technologies proper with their ensuing social and cultural practices, but also the intellectual and artistic imagination merit our attention, as do political legitimations in the form of utopias and dystopias. Issues that might be addressed include:

- The shifting relationship between modernisation, risk and trust (in authorities, experts, civil society). These connections do not only shift over time, but also among the actors who create and regulate risks. Local, national and international levels of production and ‘running’ risks interfere.
- Promises of progress habitually have been (fellow)travelling in the company of ideologies. Do new forms of trust require new grand utopian narratives? Or will new deliberative procedures (as advocated by such diverse thinkers as Habermas and Rosanvallon) be up to the task? Ecology and sustainability seem to belong to the domain of technology, biology and economics. How can we write a cultural history of environmental consciousness and conservationist practices?
- How have different social groups, communities and civilizations defined ‘risk’ in the past? Might the temporal definition of risk society be too confined and do long-term developments merit more attention? Does ‘reflexive modernity’ really create new styles of thought and practical changes?
- How has the tension between risk management and innovation been resolved in the past? What arrangements – if any - have been successful in combining security and dynamic growth?
- How might we historicise the concept of risk society or risk culture as situated in the demise of the welfare or caring state and pay attention to its inherent political activism?

To get a broader picture of our own line of thought on modernity and its problems, we refer to the editorial in the International Journal of History Culture and Modernity (HCM), vol. 1, (2013), issue 1. We aim to publish a selection of the contributions in a special issue of HCM.

Please send us (prof. dr. Ed Jonker and dr. Willemijn Ruberg) your proposal for a paper to be included in this session (abstracts no more than 250 words) before 15 March 2015. Email: E.Jonker@uu.nl; W.G.Ruberg@uu.nl. We will make a selection from the abstracts received and will propose one or two sessions to the ESSHC board as part of the Culture Network. The ESSHC deadline for proposals for papers and panels is 1 May 2015. For more information on the ESSHC, see: https://esshc.socialhistory.org/; on HCM: www.history-culture-modernity.org/

References:
- Ulrich Beck, Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity (Newbury Park, CA, 1992 [1986])
- Soraya Boudia and Nathalie Jas, ‘Introduction: Risk and “Risk Society” in Historical Perspective’, History and Technology: An International Journal, 23:4 (2007) (theme issue Risk and ‘Risk Society’ in historical perspective) 317-331
- ‘Shaping the discourse on modernity’, in: International Journal of History, Culture and Modernity (HCM), 1, (2013), 1