Rethinking The Concepts of Ulrich Beck's "Risk Society" and Anthony Giddens's "Late Modernity” In The Focus Of Covid-19 Outbreak

The risks and uncertainties that are considered among the dilemmas of modern society are more visible with pandemic diseases. The dizzying pace of globalization and the desire of humanity to dominate nature push the unbelievable success of today's societies on the one hand and push your future into uncertainty on the other. While both Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens use different concepts, they define the societies we live through the concept of risk. According to the thinkers, while the risks in traditional societies are limited to "space", today's risks exceed both space and time limits. In this respect, the determining feature of risks and uncertainties in modern societies is that they can affect everyone without discriminating class, gender, region, continent etc. distiction even without realizing it. The uncertainties created by the Covid-19 outbreak such as the duration of the pandemia, the timing of developing an effective vaccine formulation which avalible for all people, and how to maintain work, daily life, and education etc, have become sources of anxiety, fear and stress. The main findings of the studies conducted in this period confirm the thesis of Back and Giddens claiming that the current risks pointed will affect everyone to a certain extent. In this context, this study makes a theoretical discussion on the concept of “risk society” through the reflections of the uncertainty caused by the pandemia on human relations, family, education and economic institutions. The uncertainties caused by the Covid-19 outbreak affect all people to a certain extent, individuals experience existential anxiety both for themselves and their relatives and individulas are more pessimistic about the future.

Keywords

sociology, risk society, risks, covid-19, pandemia, uncertainties, pandamia in Turkey