Browsing by Author "Virtanen, Mikko J."

The key thought of Ulrich Beck s theory of reflexive modernization is the present on-going societal change. By reflexivity of this multifaceted change Beck refers to a societal process in which modernization turns towards its very own premises. Dissolving former highly ontologized institutional arrangements typical for what Beck calls the first modernity which have become predominantly restraints for the dynamics of modernization, reflexive modernization opens up ways to a new societal phase, in Beck s terms: the second modernity. To examine Beck s theory of this complex transition process, the process of reflexive modernization, is the main task of this thesis. In this study, the theory of reflexive modernization is considered as a proper social theory or to be exact: a theory of society (Gesellschaftstheorie), a theory operating on a general level striving to cover the overall process of societal change and its general constitution. The standpoint of the examination is anchored in recent theoretical discussions concerning modernity, differentiation and contingency. The main ideas on which the viewpoint of the examination is constructed derive from the thoughts of theoreticians such as Niklas Luhmann, Armin Nassehi, Peter Wagner and Risto Kangas orientated to German tradition of differentiation based theory of society. In the first phase of the study, however, Beck s theory is examined staying close to his own texts. The differentiation theory based viewpoint, named as the anormative contingency-theory , for its part, is put explicitly to use in the second phase. In the first phase of the study the logics of the chance observed in Beck s theory are pointed out by answering to questions such as how does the societal change emerge in the first place, how does it advance and what kind of actors does it include? This examination opens up hence a possibility to examine the level of this process of the reflexive modernization. Thus next is asked if the reflexive modernization is indicative of an immanent change of modernity, focused mainly on the institutional level or of a radical societal change, which considers the whole modernization process and the basic premises of modernity. In addition, at the end of the first phase, the temporal terminology used by Beck when emphasizing the rupture of modernization is examined: does Beck point to a real epochal break or is his way of using epochal concepts, such as the first and the second modernity, only a heuristic tool for the research process at hand? The examination of the second phase, which includes the proper analysis of Beck s theory, is based on the above-mentioned theoretical standpoint, the anormative contingency-theory . Firstly, the mutual relations of the three components of the theory of reflexive modernization Zeitdiagnose, for empirical use intended research-theory and general theory of society is examined. Secondly, Beck s theory is set in relation to classical social theory by pinpointing the mutual aspects of the theory of reflexive modernization and that of, predominantly German, classics. In addition, the relation of Beck s theory and the so called anormative contingency-theory is studied with a view to find out whether there is a strong normative base in the former. Along with this examination, a study of Beck s own observational position in relation to his subject, the changing conditions of present societal state, is carried out as well. This thorough examination reveals that the theory of reflexive modernization concerns, first and foremost, only the institutional change of society of the present: The basic principles of modernity require the annulment of the old institutional order of the first modernity, which has become a restraint to their full implementation. For example universal egalitarism can be fully reached only when the current way of thinking based on nation-state-institutions is replaced by substantively global arrangements, which abandon the predominant container-model of culturally integrated and from each other separated nation-state-societies . Albeit the transition process of reflexive modernization unfold by its own dynamic mainly through various side-effects and problematizations of current demarcations despite of individuals opinions about it, it causes new demands also for them. Because of dis-embedding of their old institutionalized certainties, individuals are now forced to re-embed their personal life in this new situation of the second modernity. Hence the on-going institutional change the reflexive modernization enforces individuals to act more reflexively as before. When examined through a primary theoretical lens, the theory of reflexive modernization does not operate as a proper theory of society. Instead of the problem of constitution, which is characteristical for general social theories, Beck s theory is made up of inventing new concepts for various societal phenomena, interpreted to be fully new ones by Beck himself. And that is not a social theory or theory of society in the first place, but pure Zeitdiagnose. Constituted in that kind of a zeitdiagnostisch way, it is not possible to use the theory of reflexive modernization in empirical research without some major problems either: concepts developed in mentioned manner can not be verified through empirical data in an ordinary way, because, firstly, they are not generated through empirical induction and, secondly, they are not concepts of falsification-prone research-theory either. In addition to these predominantly research-related problems, Beck s theoretical apparatus seems to stem from a highly normativistic background. Instead of anormativistic acceptance of contingency as its basic presupposition, the theory of reflexive modernization is constructed more like from an Archimedic point: Beck himself sees the only right logic of modernization process and knows how societal relations have to be arranged to let that logic fully flow. Beck s theory is thus mere a political description of how society of the present should be arranged than theory of society in its purest, constitution-wide form. The theory of reflexive modernization can therefore be illustrated as a part of the long normative tradition of social thought stemming from the very ideas of The Enlightenment representing even the most politically charged side of that tradition.