Understanding Risk And Trust: A Short Conceptual Examination (social Perspectives In The 21st Century)

This book explores the concepts of'risk'and'trust'that are theoretical tools and arguably major facets of late modernity. New conceptions of trust and risk are rapidly changing theoretical knowledge bases of social science disciplines. A sociologically informed understanding of risk and trust illustrates the interconnectedness of an aging population and social welfare. From this perspective, risk and trust are more than a calculation of costs and benefits, they are theoretical mechanisms for weighing different sets of political and economic orientations. Drawing from comparative examples, the text assesses the implications of risk and trust for how people in general, and older people in particular, are made welfare subjects in contemporary society. UNDERSTANDING RISK AND TRUST: A SHORT CONCEPTUAL EXAMINATION 3 UNDERSTANDING RISK AND TRUST: A SHORT CONCEPTUAL EXAMINATION 5 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data 6 CONTENTS 7 PREFACE 9 Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 13 Chapter 2: RISK AND WELFARE 17 From Trust to Risk? 24 Beck and The ‘Risk Society’ Thesis 26 The Governance of Uncertainty in Welfare and Old Age 30 CONCLUSION 32 Chapter 3: TRUST AND WELFARE 35 INTRODUCTION 35 NAVIGATING THE CONCEPTUAL COMPLEXITY OF TRUST 38 CONCLUSION 51 REFERENCES 53 INDEX 63