Risks in Modern Societies

fakultatywne

The course will provide students with an overview of contemporary theoretical and empirical debates on ‘risk’ in modern societies. The theoretical paradigms will range from the rational actor paradigm (RAP), through socio-cultural theories of risk (including “risk society”) to a philosophical paradigm. Attention will be focused upon the theoretical perspectives that inform empirical studies of risk perceptions and behaviours in regard to the following main topics: new technologies, migration, climate change, pandemics, socio-economic exclusion and other. Students will debate the political values and ethical concerns that inform contrasting economic, sociological, anthropological and philosophical accounts of ‘risk’.

The course will provide students with an overview of contemporary theoretical and empirical debates on ‘risk’ in modern societies. The theoretical paradigms will range from the rational actor paradigm (RAP), through socio-cultural theories of risk (including “risk society”) to a philosophical paradigm. Attention will be focused upon the theoretical perspectives that inform empirical studies of risk perceptions and behaviours in regard to the following main topics: new technologies, migration, climate change, pandemics, socio-economic exclusion and other. Students will debate the political values and ethical concerns that inform contrasting economic, sociological, anthropological and philosophical accounts of ‘risk’.

Successful completion of the course will provide students with: An ability to gather data and information from secondary sources; an ability to present interdisciplinary reasoned arguments; an ability to communicate opinions and ideas to a critical audience; an ability to critically apply social science to the assessment, analysis and management of risk; an ability to explore the interrelationship between theory, method, policy and practice; an ability to critically evaluate the significance and value of research data.

Student's working time:

- organized hours: 60 h

- preparation for classes: 60 h

- preparation for a credit / examination: 30 h

Jaeger, C.C.; Renn, O, Rosa, E.A. & Webler T. (2001) Risk, uncertainty and rational action. Earthscan, London and Sterling, VA

Lupton, D. (1999), Risk. London/New York: Routledge

Rosa, E., McCright, A., Renn, O. (2015). The Risk Society Revisited: Social Theory and Risk Governance. Temple University Press

Hansson, S. O. (2003). “Ethical criteria of risk acceptance”, Erkenntnis, 59: 291–309.

Hansson, S. O. (1996). „What is philosophy of risk?”, Theoria 62, 169–86.

Thomson, P. B.(1986). „The Philosophical Foundations of Risk”, The Southern Journal of Philosophy 24, 273-86.

Bostrom, N., Ćirković, M. M. (Eds.) (2008). Global Catastrophic Risks, Oxford University Press.

Posner R. A. (2004). Catastrophe: Risk and Response, Oxford University Press.

Pritchard, D., (2015). “Risk”, Metaphilosophy, 46(3): 436–61.

Plough, A., & Krimsky, S. (1987). The Emergence of Risk Communication Studies: Social and Political Context. Science, Technology, & Human Values, 12(3/4), 4–10.

Sjöberg, L., (2004)., “The Methodology of Risk Perception Research”, Quality and Quantity, 34: 407–18.

Beck U., Giddens A., Lash S. (1994), Reflexive Modernization: Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics in the Modern Social Order. Stanford University Press.

Giddens, A. (1991). Modernity and Self-Identity. Stanford University Press.

Zinn, J.O. (ed.) (2008). Social Theories of Risk and Uncertainty, Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Zinn, J.O. (2020). Understanding Risk-Taking, Palgrave Macmillan Cham.

Giddens, A. (2003). Runaway world: How globalization is reshaping our lives. Taylor & Francis.

Beck, U. (2013). Living in and Coping with World Risk in: Innerarty & Solana (eds). Humanity at Risk: The Need for Global Governance, Bloomsbury Academic.

Foucault, M. (1991), ‘Governmentality’, in G. Burchell, C. Gordon. & P. Miller (eds), The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality, Hemel Heampstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf.

Nikolas, R., Miller, P. (2008). Governing the present: administering economic, social and personal life. Polity Press, Cambridge, UK.

Dean, M. (1999). Governmentality: Power and Rule in Modern Society. London: Sage.

Kindler, M. (2011), A Risky Business?: Ukrainian Migrant Women in Warsaw's Domestic Work Sector, Amsterdam University Press.

Slovic, P.. (2000), The perception of risk, Routledge.

Charsley K. (2007). Risk, trust, gender and transnational cousin marriage among British Pakistanis, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 30:6.

Galantino M. R. (2022). The use of risk language in migration discourse. A comparative exploration of German and Italian newspapers: Journal of Risk Research: Vol 25, No 3.

Bivand Erdal M., Oeppen C. (2018). Forced to leave? The discursive and analytical significance of describing migration as forced and voluntary, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 44:6, 981-998.

Van Hear, N., R. Brubaker, and T. Bessa. (2009). Managing Mobility for Human Development: The Growing Salience of Mixed Migration. MPRA paper no. 19202. Oxford: UNDP.

Bakewell O. (2008), Research Beyond the Categories: The Importance of Policy Irrelevant Research into Forced Migration, Journal of Refugee Studies, Volume 21, Issue 4, 432–453.

Bigo, D. (2002): Security and Immigration: Toward a Critique of the Governmentality of Unease. Alternatives 27, Special Issue: 63-92.

Boswell, Ch. (2009), “Knowledge, Legitimation and the Politics of Risk: The Functions of Research in Public Debates on Migration”, Political Studies, 57:1.

Neal, A. (2009), Securitization and risk at the EU border: The origins of FRONTEX. Journal of Common Market Studies, 47 (2), 333-356.

Sasse, G. (2005), ‘Securitization or Securing Rights? Exploring the Conceptual Foundations of Policies towards Minorities and Migrants in Europe’, Journal of Common Market Studies 43 (4).

Balzacq, T. (2005), The Three Faces of Securitization: Political Agency, Audience and Context. European Journal of International Relations 11(2): 171-201.

Schinkel, W. (2017). Imagined Societies: A Critique of Immigrant Integration in Western Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Schinkel, W. (2018). Against ‘immigrant integration’: for an end to neocolonial knowledge production. CMS 6, 31.

Klarenbeek, L. M. (2019). Relational integration: A response to Willem Schinkel. Comparative Migration Studies., 7, 20.

Spencer, S. (2022). The Contested Concept of ‘Integration’. In: Scholten, P. (eds) Introduction to Migration Studies. IMISCOE Research Series. Springer, Cham.

Jiménez, T. R. (2017). The Other Side of Assimilation: How Immigrants Are Changing American Life. 1st ed., University of California Press.

Waters M.C., Jiménez T.R. (2005), Assessing Immigrant Assimilation: New Empirical and Theoretical Challenges, Annual Review of Sociology 31:1, 105-125.

Brown, P. (2012). Perspectives on the ‘lens of risk’ interview series: Interviews with Joost van Loon and Ortwin Renn: Health, Risk & Society: Vol 14, No 5.

Pinto, A. et al. (2017). Italian consumers’ attitudes towards food risks: self-protective and non-self-protective profiles for effective risk communication: Journal of Risk Research: Vol 20, No 3.

Jacobi, C. Fittig E. (2010), Psychosocial Risk Factors for Eating Disorders. In: W. Stewart Agras (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Eating Disorders (1 ed.), Oxford University Press, USA.

Levine M.P., Smolak L. (2010), Cultural Influences on Body Image and the Eating Disorders. In:. Stewart Agras (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Eating Disorders (1 ed.), Oxford University Press, USA.

Nasser, M. and Katzman, M. (2003). Sociocultural Theories of Eating Disorders: An Evolution in Thought. In Handbook of Eating Disorders (eds J. Treasure, U. Schmidt and E. van Furth).

Merry N. Miller, Andrés J. Pumariega (2001), Culture and Eating Disorders: A Historical and Cross-Cultural Review, Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes 64:2, 93-110.

Fischhoff B. and Kadvany J. (2011) Risk: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press.

Coeckelbergh M. (2022) The Political Philosophy of AI. An Introduction, Polity Press.

Crawford K. (2021) Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence, Yale University Press.

Pasquale F. (2015) The Black Box Society: The Secret Algorithms That Control Money and Information, Harvard University Press.

Upon completing this course a student

in terms of knowledge:

K_W02 - Understands the subject, scope, conceptual apparatus around the topic of risk and related changes, particularly in the area of new technologies, migration, health, demography and climate (especially in Central and Eastern Europe).

K_W06 - Understands the value of an interdisciplinary approach – economic, socio-cultural and philosophical - to the analysis and interpretation of risks in the modern world (especially in Central and Eastern Europe).

in terms of abilities:

K_U01 - Is able to select and make a critical assessment of information and data on risk coming from various scientific, popular science, journalistic and other sources.

K_U06 - Is able to present the results of individual and team academic work in the form of a structured and argued statement in the form of an oral presentation about risk related phenomena.

in terms of social competences:

K_K06 - Knows the academic ethos and uses it to develop his/her scientific knowledge on deconstructing and preventing risks.

Active participation in class discussions and activities.

Completing reading assignments, mid-term test and group presentations.

Students are allowed four absences during the course. With the fifth and sixth absence the students will have to write an assignment based on the obligatory reading material to pass. Seven or more absences result in course failure.