A Study On Contemporary Technology Risk In The View Of Modernity

The modern movement based on rationality and subjectivity has pushed human beings into the risk society since the mid-20 th century.Beck,Giddens and Lash use the theory of “second modernity” as the strategic plan to respond the modernity crisis.In their view,the appearance of second modernity does not mean the end of modernity and the beginning of post-modernity.The coming of risk society comes from the self-encountering and self-disputing of the modernity.How to comprehend technology and risk is the basic premise to analyze technological risk.Risk exists in every phase of human society,but in the second modern society,the risk of contemporary technology has become an urgent problem.Contemporary technology risk is different from natural risk and industrial technology risk.In fact,it's manufactured risk or man-made risk.Beck calls it “civilized risk”.Contemporary technology risk and the second modernity interact each other.On the one hand,the second modernity provides a theoretical framework to the research of contemporary technology risk.On the other hand,contemporary technology risk is the important characterization of second modernity.Although Beck,Giddens and Lash do not use “technological risk” directly,there exist abundant technological risk thoughts in their works.Beck holds that “unawareness”(cognitive cause)and “organized irresponsibility”(institutional cause)are among the chief causes of contemporary technology risk.He further states that “sub-politics” and “trans-boundary governance” are effective control measures against risks.Giddens analyzes the cause and countermeasure of contemporary technology risk from the knowledge aspect,which is different from Beck's viewpoint.The analysis of contemporary technology risk,in Lash's view,cannot neglect risk culture.The thought of Beck,Giddens and Lash presents both theoretical and practical value,but there also exist some places waiting for improvement.Causes of the contemporary technology risk include science,technology and social systems.Specifically,the “technological black-box”,the close related and complex correlation of technological system,the fatigue life of technological system,scientific uncertainty,the change of the relation between science and technology offer the objective causes for the contemporary technology risk.In addition,the mistake of government,expert system,mass media and the public lead to the negative influence of it go beyond technology itself,and impose the social impacts widely,even cause further secondary disasters.The contemporary technology risk avoiding means taking a series of measure actively to avoid the occurrence of technological risk events,reduce the probability of it and prevent the negative effect expansion.On the one hand,the contemporary technology risk has its objective necessity,the technological pessimist hold that the denial or abandonment of technology means the elimination of it.However,it's an unrealistic and unreasonable hypothesis.Facing it is the precondition of its avoiding.On the other hand,the contemporary technology risk has its controllability.Guiding the development of science and technology and regulating the behavior of government,expert system,mass media,the public can reduce the occurrence of it significantly.Chinese technology risk forms in the context of “globalization” and “compressed modernization”.As far as outside environment is concerned,the technological risks from western countries have a negative effect on china.In the course of China's modernization,it just introduces the western technology simply.And there is no mature institutional system of controlling and preventing technological risks.In order to avoid the technological risk of china,we should base on the experience from western and Chinese own particularity of development.Chinese traditional history and Marxism provide us a useful primer.