The dream of a society without risk
The object of this article is the social perception of risk in contemporary advanced societies, as seen from the perspectives of political philosophy and sociology of norms and knowledge. Following a review of reputed essays on late and post modernity, the author posits that ours is a time of shaken truths and values, nourishing scepticism and insecurity, while allowing for a growing recognition of human responsibility in risk production and maintenance. She derives from the macro analysis of late modernity a hierarchy of risks and values, in which she situates the relative dangers that drug use and abuse represent, and she then moves on to sketch out a profile of the Canadian contemporary social reaction to major risks to human health, physical environment and economic security, an exercise that validates her previous hypotheses, yet unveils the overpowering obstacles that market economy and the ‘economisation’ of everything poses to experts’ reports and political decisions in risk matters, leaving citizens’ militancy and field actors to do the work.