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Consists of two themes: reflexive modernization and risk. It upturns the essentially negative concepts of post-industrial , post-Enlightenment , post-Fordist and postmodern and replaces them with a picture of global social change.

The theme of reflexivity has come to be central to social analysis. This book features three social thinkers who discuss the implications of 'reflexive modernization' for social and cultural theory. It includes sections where the authors offer critical appraisals of each other's viewpoints, giving a synthetic conclusion to the work as a whole.

Argues that the conflicts of the future will no longer be between East and West, between communism and capitalism, but between the countries, regions and groups involved in primary modernization and those that are attempting to relativize and reform the project of modernity self-critically.

Individualization argues that we are in the midst of a fundamental change in the nature of society and politics. This change hinges around two processes: globalization and individualization. The book demonstrates that individualization is a structural characteristic of highly differentiated societies, and does not imperil social cohesion, but actually makes it possible. Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth .

Features conversations that reveal the major themes in the author's work and provide an insight into some of the commitments and beliefs that they rest upon. This title includes fresh thinking on the risk society and on globalisation, themes that have put the author at the forefront of contemporary debates.

Argues that love has become an empty category, which lovers themselves must fill in relation to their own biographies and emotional lives. This book extends and deepens some of the themes introduced in Risk Society .

Presents an analysis of the structural dynamics of the modern world, the global nature of risk and the future of global politics.

This work offers an engaging and challenging introduction to the globalization debate. The author aims to clarify the ambiguities of the debate, to distinguish between the various types of globalization and to warn the reader of conceptual traps.

Those who advocate ideas about 'postmodernity' and 'post-industrialism' offer radical critiques of existing social and political institutions. This book suggests that we should think again about forging a new model of politics for our times. It is intended for those in the fields of social and political theory, sociology and political science.

The contributors cover the new risks associated with the emergence of new technologies, genetic and cybernetic. They also demonstrate why the main arguments covered before -- centred on environmental, health and personal risk -- reverberate throughout social theory.

Focuses on the global power games being played out between global business, nation states and movements rooted in civil society. This title offers an account of the changing nature of power in the global age and assesses the influence of the ever-expanding counter-powers.

This volume examines how work has become unstable in the modern world and aims to present a new vision for the future. The author begins by describing how the traditional work society is giving way to a much less stable world in which skills can be suddenly devalued and jobs obliterated.

Considers the tension between entertainment and information in media coverage of environmental issues.

Develops classic concepts of second modernity, risk society and reflexive sociology into a radical sociological analysis of the cosmopolitan implications of globalization in Europe.

Argues that the conflicts of the future will no longer be between East and West, between communism and capitalism, but between the countries, regions and groups involved in primary modernization and those that are attempting to relativize and reform the project of modernity self-critically.

Examines the politics of the risk society. This book illustrates how the establishment has endeavoured to take over the debate and then stifled it. It argues that vested interests have developed a strategy of avoiding discussion of accountability by bringing mega-risks to the foreground so that containable risks are hidden in their shadow.

This work offers an engaging and challenging introduction to the globalization debate. The author aims to clarify the ambiguities of the debate, to distinguish between the various types of globalization and to warn the reader of conceptual traps.

Focuses on the global power games being played out between global business, nation states and movements rooted in civil society. This title offers an account of the changing nature of power in the global age and assesses the influence of the ever-expanding counter-powers.