Pesticides in the Risk Society

Abstract

Ulrich Beck's diagnosis in his already classic book Risk Society addressed, when it was first published in 1986, a number of new and important issues concerning environment and society. In spite of the weight of the theoretical contributions of the book, it appears, however, somewhat unsubstantiated in empirical terms. Similarly, the `macroscopic' level of Beck's analysis often seems insensitive to variations in risk concerns within and between different countries, regions or localities. These interrelated characteristics of the risk society discussion serve as the background for the approach in this article: to discuss central theoretical propositions related to the risk society diagnosis by drawing on an empirical case study of the risk perception with regard to pesticides. Pesticides are by nature `designer toxins' and as such a `risky' technological development, detectable only by experts' `sense apparatus', and surrounded by expert disagreements, multiple interests and substantial media attention. In other words, this case study can be said to be `paradigmatic' and may hence have wider applicability within risk society debates. On this basis, the authors argue in particular that social processes of perceiving, of `viewing' and making sense of risk, are much more multifarious than allowed by the risk society framework.