Research Catalog

Title

The fragility of modern societies : knowledge and risk in the information age / Nico Stehr.

Author

Stehr, Nico.

Publication

London ; Thousand Oaks, Calif. : SAGE, 2001.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xi, 221 pages; 24 cm

Summary

"This book argues that knowledge is now central to the modern economy and its productive processes. It is also essential for social relations, social cohesion and conflict resolution. We have moved from a society based around heavy commodities to symbolic goods, from situated markets to non-place-specific locations, from machines to software and from things to ideas. These changes produce new forms of social interactions and new perspectives on identity, practice and association."--Jacket.

Uniform Title

Zerbrechlichkeit moderner Gesellschaften. English

Alternative Title

Zerbrechlichkeit moderner Gesellschaften.

Subject

• Since 1950
• Knowledge, Sociology of
• Civilization, Modern > 1950-
• Social change
• Risk > Sociological aspects
• Individualism
• Power (Social sciences)
• sociology of knowledge
• 05.20 communication and society
• Civilization, Modern
• Individualism
• Knowledge, Sociology of
• Risk > Sociological aspects
• Social change
• Informationsgesellschaft
• Informatiemaatschappij
• Kennis
• Economische aspecten
• Sociologische aspecten

Note

• German edition published: Weilerswist : Velbrück, 2000.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [189]-212) and indexes.

Contents

1. The Texture of Modern Societies -- The Nation-state -- Functional Differentiation -- Rationalizing the Irrational -- Traditional and Modern Societies -- The Extension of Social Conduct -- 2. Knowledge Societies -- The Emergence of Knowledge Societies -- The Society of Societies -- 3. Knowledge about Knowledge -- Knowledge as a Capacity for Action -- Culture and Knowledge -- From Capacities to Realization -- Incremental Knowledge -- Knowledge and Information -- Limits to the Power of Knowledge -- 4. Fusion through Dissolution -- The Disappearance of Human Agency -- A Surplus of Social Manipulation -- Moral Indifference, Power and Science -- 5. Fragile Social Structures -- The World of Post-industrial Societies -- Collective and Individual Capacities to Act -- 6. Governing Knowledge Societies -- The Stalled Society -- The Politics of Knowledge Societies -- Political Action and Knowledgeability -- 7. Fragmentation and Homogenization of Social Life -- The Advent of Mass Societies -- The Globalization of the World -- Globalization in Historical Times -- The Divisions of the World -- The Reconfiguration of the Globe -- 8. Policing Knowledge -- Knowledge Politics -- Regulating Knowledge -- The Social Control of Knowledge Claims in Science -- The Societal Regulation of Knowledge -- The Virchow-Haeckel Controversy -- The Public and Science -- The Developments of Social Controls -- Knowledge Hierarchies and Monopolies -- 9. Emancipation and Knowledge -- The Knowledge/Power Axis -- The New Risks of Knowledge -- Modern Social Movements -- Criticism of the Formal Concept of Risk -- On the Difference between Decision-makers and those Affected by Risks of Decisions -- The Return of Uncertainty in Society -- Risk of Decision in the Context of Fragile Knowledge -- 10. Knowledge, Uncertainty and Contingency -- Prospects or what Remains Open.

ISBN

• 0761953485
• 9780761953487
• 0761953493
• 9780761953494

LCCN

00136288

OCLC

• ocm59531170
• 59531170
• SCSB-8803499

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library