Hoorcolleges Topic Social Media
Hoorcollege 2
Network society, risk society & reflexive modernization
Risk Society
Our world becomes more predictable, more manageable, more certain.
The electronics speed up our relations/communication to such a high rate,
that we are unable to process all the information.
Global warning is a good example of a manufactured risk (risks we created
our selves). What the outcome or consequences might be. External risk: risks
that come from nature (tsunami). In the past this was the biggest sort of
risks. Now it is the manufactured risks. First we were more worried about
what nature did to us, no more about what we do to nature.
Manufactured risk also relates to the opportunity-side of modernity; risk as
an energizing principle for chance. Jumping on a train might be dangerous,
but we might get somewhere earlier.
Buying chocolate, you might be promoting child labour.
A variety of mechanisms have been developed to deal with risk in
communication: ‘niet tevreden geld terug’.
Money is an abstract system that takes away risks.
Expert systems: you don’t ask a tram driver if he knows the way, you know he
knows and you rely on the expert system. You will just sit in de tram and wait
to get out. It’s guaranteed you are going to the place you want, you trust it.
On the other hand, we can’t always trust them to take us where we want to
go on time.
Generalized forms of communication: you know what a toilet sign means.
This will take away risks. On the other hand, sometimes they can be very
unclear and lead to risks.
Modern communication technologies can radically change the degree of
control people have over communication processes.
Hoorcollege 2
Network society, risk society & reflexive modernization
Risk Society
Our world becomes more predictable, more manageable, more certain.
The electronics speed up our relations/communication to such a high rate,
that we are unable to process all the information.
Global warning is a good example of a manufactured risk (risks we created
our selves). What the outcome or consequences might be. External risk: risks
that come from nature (tsunami). In the past this was the biggest sort of
risks. Now it is the manufactured risks. First we were more worried about
what nature did to us, no more about what we do to nature.
Manufactured risk also relates to the opportunity-side of modernity; risk as
an energizing principle for chance. Jumping on a train might be dangerous,
but we might get somewhere earlier.
Buying chocolate, you might be promoting child labour.
A variety of mechanisms have been developed to deal with risk in
communication: ‘niet tevreden geld terug’.
Money is an abstract system that takes away risks.
Expert systems: you don’t ask a tram driver if he knows the way, you know he
knows and you rely on the expert system. You will just sit in de tram and wait
to get out. It’s guaranteed you are going to the place you want, you trust it.
On the other hand, we can’t always trust them to take us where we want to
go on time.
Generalized forms of communication: you know what a toilet sign means.
This will take away risks. On the other hand, sometimes they can be very
unclear and lead to risks.
Modern communication technologies can radically change the degree of
control people have over communication processes.
