メディア・コミュニケーション研究 = Media and Communication Studies;67

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社会のリスク化と持続可能性 : 不可逆性を軸として

長島, 美織

Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/58809
KEYWORDS : risk;sustainability;irreversible change;environment

Abstract

This essay examines what it means for societies to be increasingly risky. According to Beck (1986) and Giddens (1999), a certain degree of wealth, security, and stability are necessary social conditions for society to be a risk society. Among these prerequisites, we focus on stability, especially environmental stability, and examine relations between sustainability and risk. First, the historical development of the notion of sustainability and sustainable development, in addition to the contested arguments associated with that notion will be reviewed. We then argue that the ecosystem and its associated integrity are the basic requirements for society to be stable and conclude that the avoidance of irreversible change must be considered as a prime condition for risk governance. Once irreversible environmental change occurs, we no longer can afford to have freedom to take the risks, which we were once associated with an individual’s courage and wisdom. We thus show that the riskiest society is in fact the society in which risk cannot exist.

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