Risk society and beyond traces the evolution of Ulrich Beck's ideas as expressed in Risk Society (1992) and expands into previously unforeseen risk areas, such as genetics and cyberspace.

Bringing together cutting edge academics and researchers, Beyond the Risk Society provides an understanding of the relevance and impact of the concept of risk in various subject areas. Contributions by domain experts critically evaluate the way in which theoretical risk perspectives have influenced their fields of interest, offering the opportunity to reflect upon the problems and possibilities for future work on risk.

Ulrich Beck′s best selling Risk Society established risk on the sociological agenda. It brought together a wide range of issues centering on environmental, health and personal risk, provided a rallying ground for researchers and activists in a variety of social movements and acted as a reference point for state and local policies in risk management. The Risk Society and Beyond charts the progress of Beck′s ideas and traces their evolution. It demonstrates why the issues raised by Beck reverberate widely throughout social theory and covers the new risks that Beck did not foresee, associated with the emergence of new technologies, genetic and cybernetic. The book is unique because it offers both an introduction to the main arguments in Risk Society and develops a range of critical discussions of aspects of this and other works of Beck.

An analysis of the condition of Western societies that will take its place as a core text of contemporary sociology alongside earlier typifications of society as postindustrial, and current debates about the social dimensions of the postmodern

This panoramic analysis of the condition of Western societies has been hailed as a classic. This first English edition has taken its place as a core text of contemporary sociology alongside earlier typifications of society as postindustrial and current debates about the social dimensions of the postmodern. Underpinning the analysis is the notion of the `risk society'. The changing nature of society's relation to production and distribution is related to the environmental impact as a totalizing, globalizing economy based on scientific and technical knowledge becomes more central to social organization and social conflict.

`The book is a unique combination of criminology, politics and philosophy which can be recommended′ - Network, Newsletter of the British Sociological Association `Hudson′s Justice in the Risk Society is stunning in the depth and breadth of its scholarship. In examining the challenges the risk society presents for established conceptions of justice she compels a profound rethinking of what justice does, and can, mean. Her analysis will frame and inspire future debate′ - Clifford Shearing, Professor, Law Program, Research School of Social Science, Australian National University `Remarkably comprehensive, ambitious in its scope and morally compelling. Barbara Hudson draws skilfully from a wide range of frameworks... She asks fundamental questions about the nature of justice and argues for a radical rethink of liberalism. She explores complex subject matter in a clear and accessible fashion. This excellent book will surely reinvigorate theoretical thinking on the nature of punishment for years to come′ - Kieran McEvoy, Professor of Law and Transitional Justice, School of Law, Queen′s University Belfast ′The book makes an important contribution to the development of new perspectives on justice and provides a rigorous analysis of political and ethical theories that will be highly relevant to criminology and penology students, academics, criminal justice practitioners and policy makers′ - SOCLAG Legal Journal How much of a threat does society′s preoccupation with `risk′ pose to the ideal of `justice′? Innovations in control and in penal policy are increasingly dominated by the theme of public protection, motivated by the aim of controlling risk rather than the aim of enhancing social justice. In Justice in the Risk Society, Barbara Hudson outlines traditional liberal perspectives on justice, risk and security, as well as addressing some key concerns, including: · the challenges to justice: the politics of risk and safety · communitarian and feminist political and ethical theories · how to use current theories and perspectives such as Habermas′s discourse ethics and postmodern perspectives on justice · how to develop new methods of re-affirming and reconstructing theories and institutions of justice The book concludes with analysis of two of the most important elements of justice for late-modernity: discursiveness and human rights. Justice in the Risk Society provides theoretical analysis with a discussion of policies, and arguments are illustrated by cases and examples. The book reviews political and ethical theories in a way that is highly relevant and accessible to criminology and penology students, practitioners and academics, as well as making an original contribution to the development of new perspectives on justice.

This book provides a comprehensive and thorough interpretation of Beck's theory of the (world) risk society, from its original formulation up to his sudden death on New Year's Day 2015. Beck's entire body of work is divided into four interrelated phases, which are successively presented and discussed, namely: the original theory of risk society (from 1986 onwards); the theory of the world risk society (from 1996 onwards); the theory of cosmopolitanism and cosmopolitanization (from 1996 onwards); and the theory of 'metamorphosis', 'emancipatory catastrophism and 'global imagined risk communities' (2013–16). The book thus demonstrates how Beck’s concept of the (world) risk society has given us a new language or a special lens that enables us to better understand contemporary society’s complexity and its myriad of human-made uncertainties in terms of climate change, terrorist threats, global pandemics, economic crises, and migration crises.