scholarly journals COVID-19 as a Global Risk: Confronting the Ambivalences of a Socionatural Threat

Societies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Arias-Maldonado
Keyword(s):  
Risk Theory ◽  
Risk Society ◽  
Global Risk ◽  
Human Species ◽  
Satisfactory Account ◽  
The Face ◽  
Modernization Process

On the face of it, the COVID-19 pandemic seems to fit into the risk society framework as a danger that is produced by the modernization process in its global stage. However, coronaviruses are a very particular kind of risk which risk theory does not properly explain. In fact, there is no single perspective on risk that offers a fully satisfactory account of the SARS-CoV-2, despite all of them having something valuable to contribute to the task. This paper attempts to categorize the COVID-19 pandemic as a particular kind of risk that is not adequately explained with reference to the risk society or the new epoch of the Anthropocene. On the contrary, it combines premodern and modern features: it takes place in the Anthropocene but is not of the Anthropocene, while its effects are a manifestation of the long globalization process that begins in antiquity with the early representations of the planet as a sphere. If the particular identity of the disease is considered, COVID-19 emerges as the first truly global illness and thus points to a new understanding of the vulnerability of the human species qua species.

Power of Darkness: Narrative and Biographical Reflexivity in A Series of Unfortunate Events

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-212
Author(s):  
ELIZABETH BULLEN
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Risk Society ◽  
Project Risk ◽  
Young Readers ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
High Earning ◽  
Textual Culture ◽  
Children’S Exposure ◽  
Central Claim

This paper investigates the high-earning children's series, A Series of Unfortunate Events, in relation to the skills young people require to survive and thrive in what Ulrich Beck calls risk society. Children's textual culture has been traditionally informed by assumptions about childhood happiness and the need to reassure young readers that the world is safe. The genre is consequently vexed by adult anxiety about children's exposure to certain kinds of knowledge. This paper discusses the implications of the representation of adversity in the Lemony Snicket series via its subversions of the conventions of children's fiction and metafictional strategies. Its central claim is that the self-consciousness or self-reflexivity of A Series of Unfortunate Events} models one of the forms of reflexivity children need to be resilient in the face of adversity and to empower them to undertake the biographical project risk society requires of them.

Mythologizing the face mask: How protective covers became political during the fine-dust and COVID-19 crises in South Korea

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tae-Sik Kim
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Face Mask ◽  
Risk Society ◽  
Fine Dust ◽  
South Korean ◽  
Korean Government ◽  
External Threat ◽  
The Face ◽  
Primary Means ◽  
Symbolic Code

This study aimed to demonstrate how South Korean news media routinized and sensationalized the face mask amid two recent public health crises: the fine-dust crisis and the COVID-19 epidemic. News media appropriated the mythologized meaning of the face mask as a symbol of individual safety during the two crises. This study analyses news articles to answer three questions: (1) How was wearing the face mask mythologized as a routinized practice in days of uncertain risk? (2) How was the face mask politicized as a mythologized sign indicating China as an external threat? and (3) How was the face mask politicized as a symbolic code of the government’s responsibility for the crisis? Once signified as the primary means of individual protection in the context of Korean risk society, the face mask became politicized amid the shortage of the face mask. Placed in the context of the recent disastrous crises in Korea, China was identified as the culprit not only in the epidemic but also in the shortage of the face mask. The meaning of China as an external threat was continuously strengthened when the South Korean government opted out of the entry ban on Chinese citizens. The last analytic part presents how news media politicized the epidemic by associating the face mask crisis with the Korean government.

Affinity, Antipathy and Political Participation: How Our Concern For Others Makes Us Vote

2010 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 661-687 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter John Loewen
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Formal Model ◽  
Empirical Results ◽  
Dictator Games ◽  
Concern For Others ◽  
Satisfactory Account ◽  
The Face

Abstract.Some citizens differ in their levels of concern for the supporters of various parties. I demonstrate how such concerns can motivate citizens to vote. I first present a simple formal model that incorporates concern for others and election benefits to explain the decision to vote. By predicting substantial turnout, this model overcomes the “paradox of participation.” I then verify the model empirically. I utilize a series dictator games in an online survey of more than 2000 Canadians to measure the concern of individuals for other partisans. I show how the preferences revealed in these games can predict the decision to vote in the face of several conventional controls. Taken together, the formal model and empirical results generate a more fulsome and satisfactory account of the decision to vote than an explanation which relies solely on duty.Résumé.Les citoyens ne se préoccupent pas tous des partisans des divers partis politiques. Je démontre comment de telles préoccupations peuvent motiver les citoyens à participer aux élections. Je présente d'abord un modèle formel qui explique la décision de voter en intégrant les préoccupations à l'égard des autres électeurs et les bénéfices associés à une élection. En prédisant une part substantielle de la participation, ce modèle surmonte le paradoxe de la participation électorale. Ensuite, le modèle est vérifié empiriquement. J'emploie à cette fin une série de jeux du dictateur insérés dans une enquête menée en ligne auprès de 2000 Canadiens afin de mesurer leur degré de préoccupation à l'égard des autres partisans. Je montre comment les préférences révélées dans ces jeux peuvent prédire la décision de voter. Ensemble, le modèle formel et les résultats empiriques produisent une explication plus éloquente et plus satisfaisante de la décision de voter lors d'une élection que les explications qui s'appuient seulement sur le sens du devoir.

Captain Hiram Cox's Mission to Burma, 1796–1798: A Case of Irrational Behaviour in Diplomacy

1981 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 433-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. P. Ramachandra
Keyword(s):  
Satisfactory Account ◽  
The Face ◽  
Irrational Behaviour

No satisfactory account of the Cox mission to Burma has been available up till now. Such traditional texts as those by Bayfield, Yule, Phayre, and Harvey deal with it extremely briefly and with a deep anti-Burmese prejudice. In 1955, D. G. E. Hall provided an account of the mission in the introduction to his edition of Michael Symes's journal of his mission of 1802. 1 Even this, however, is inadequate; it is again rather brief, is often inaccurate, and while placing the main blame for Cox's difficulties on the envoy himself, also attributes some responsibility to the Burmese. This is seriously misleading: Cox's responsibility, the documents show, was total, while the Burmese displayed great restraint in the face of importunate and even pathological behaviour on the envoy's part.

Bikinis and Other Atomic Incidents: The Synthetic Life of the Nuclear Pacific

2022 ◽  
Vol 2022 (142) ◽  
pp. 37-56
Author(s):  
Sunny Xiang
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
High Tech ◽  
Global Risk ◽  
Nuclear War ◽  
Atomic Age ◽  
Extreme Risk ◽  
White Femininity ◽  
The Face ◽  
Synthetic Life ◽  
Sexual Promiscuity

Abstract This article examines a range of mid-twentieth-century American fashions, particularly women’s intimate wear, that went by the name of “bikini.” In doing so, it identifies the bikini as an overt but unremarkable incident of racial and colonial violence. Treating the nuclear Pacific as conspicuously incidental in mainstream atomic culture enables new insights on the visual interplay between white femininity and primitive sexuality—an interplay that, the author argues, was integral to establishing domestic virtue and modern living as atomic age touchstones of “peace.” To elaborate on this argument, this article tracks the bikini’s achievement of propriety within a broader fashion revolution spurred by the use of high-tech fibers in swim, sleep, and support garments. It shows how an atomic ideal of “nature” arose from an imperial desire for security in the face of extreme risk—both the global risk of nuclear war and the domestic risk of sexual promiscuity.

scholarly journals Wrist function in malunion: Is the distal radius designed to retain function in the face of fracture?

2016 ◽  
Vol 98 (7) ◽  
pp. 442-445 ◽  
Author(s):  
C Uzoigwe ◽  
N Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Distal Radius ◽  
Comparative Studies ◽  
Functional Outcomes ◽  
Fracture Pattern ◽  
Distal Radius Fractures ◽  
Human Species ◽  
Radius Fractures ◽  
The Face ◽  
Preserve Function ◽  
Wrist Function

Introduction Fractures of the distal radius are the most common fracture in humans and are the sempiternal hazard of 3.5 million years of bipedalism. Despite the antiquity of the injury, one of the most controversial topics in current orthopaedics is the management of distal radius fractures. It has been suggested that radiographic appearances rarely correlate with functional outcomes. As the success of the human species is predicated almost exclusively on its dexterity and intelligence, it is conceivable that the distal radius has evolved to preserve function even in the face of injury. We therefore hypothesise that the distal radius is designed to accommodate the possibility of fracture. Methods We conducted a review of studies comparing fracture pattern and form with function. We also explore the paleoanthropological evidence and comparative studies with other primates. Findings The evidence points to the human distal radius being highly tolerant of post-fracture deformity in terms of preservation of function. In addition, the distal radius appears to have apparently anatomically ‘redundant’ features that confer this capability. We believe these phenomena to be an evolved trait that developed with bipedalism, increasing the chances of survival for a species whose success depends upon its dexterity.

scholarly journals Integrating Key Insights of Sociological Risk Theory into the Ecosystem Services Framework

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (16) ◽  
pp. 6437
Author(s):  
Sophie Peter
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Risk Perception ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Cultural Theory ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Environmental Risks ◽  
Risk Theory ◽  
Risk Society ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
New Instruments

Environmental risks give urgency to the need to understand the society–nature relationship. While the ecosystem services (ES) framework allows analysis of interrelationships between biophysical supply and human demand for natural resources, further research is needed to understand what drives societal demand for ES. Here, I explore how incorporation of the key sociological theories of risk (systems theory, ‘world risk society’, and cultural theory of risk) can advance this understanding. By examining these theories, the following key insights were identified: (1) A deeper understanding of societal structures and risk perception helps to understand culturally driven patterns of ES demand; (2) sociological ES research must use inter- and transdisciplinary methods to understand the drivers of ES demand and risk perception. It must also link this understanding to the natural sciences’ knowledge of the drivers of ES supply if it is to identify new instruments of environmental governance; (3) while anthropocentric in character, the ES framework, especially one that is modified by the concept of risk, enables society to reflect on its role as a proactive part of a social–ecological system, rather than a passive victim of nature’s whims. This change in perspective may prove to be a key step in achieving sustainable development.

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