Amy Donovan on the Risk Society

The latest Cambridge Paper from the Jubilee Centre is available online, this one by Amy Donovan:

Amy Donovan, ‘Finding Security in the “Risk Society”’, Cambridge Papers 24, 4 (December 2015).

Here is the summary:

‘Risk has become a central concept in modern life. The “risk society” that we live in has increasingly structured itself around attempting to manage an uncertain future, in which more knowledge simultaneously provides safety and increases our awareness of what we do not know. We make “risk decisions” every day about our money, cycling to work, what we include in our diet. We have an overwhelming and sometimes apparently contradictory volume of knowledge at our disposal that may aid, but can obfuscate, our decisions. The proliferation of science and technology has provided much of this knowledge, but it has also created new risks, from nuclear reactors to nanobots to processed food. This paper argues that while the risk society is a secular phenomenon, it provides an opportunity for Christians to live distinctively and attractively.’