Page 72 - Contemporary Political Sociology Globalization Politics and Power

58 Politics in a Small World

in space and time. Furthermore, responses to risk may also be global:
modernization is the driving force of globalization, but risk accelerates it

insofar as modernity is reflexive. Beck argues, from rather an optimistic
point of view, that we are now on the threshold of a radicalized modernity
in which “ global dangers set up global mutualities ” such that self -
conscious, collective refl ection on risk displaces the modern privileging of
progress and wealth production in order to avoid global destruction
(Beck, 1992 , 1996: 29).
In Beck ’ s view, the realization of the potential for refl exive modernity
depends on what he calls “ sub - politics. ” For Beck, it is very clear that
new forms of politics are developing which do not directly address the
nation - state but, nevertheless, alter it from below. Modernity has resulted
in a gap between the state as the supposed political center which actually
has no influence over the most important decisions concerning risk, and

the decisions taken outside this arena, in different institutional contexts
where contingent decisions must be made in the light of the knowledge
of different possibilities with different implications for different groups
(Beck, 1992 : 222). Beck ’ s chief example is the “ citizens - initiatives ” groups
in Germany in the 1980s and ‘ 90s, but he argues more generally that citi-
zens now have a public voice in media debates, in political campaigns, in
decisions concerning ethical consumption, in petitioning the courts on
matters of public concern, in private lifestyle choices, and in addressing
professional organizations. Scientists and technicians have an especially
important role to play in “ sub - politics ” because of their expertise in risk
assessment. All these “ citizens - initiatives ” must be taken seriously by
governments, multinational corporations, and other citizens. As Beck sees
it, in reflexive modernity, there is a re - moralization of economic and social

life in which the supposed objectivity and necessity of technical require-
ments and the outcomes of government policies are continually called into
question and opened up to new opportunities for democracy. Beck ’ s
principal example here is the politics of the environmental movement
which has been largely effective outside political parties and the bureau-
cratic procedures of the state, using a range of means to get its message
across where everyone is uncertain about the extent and depth of the real
risks involved in the everyday use of science and technology.
Beck ’ s analysis of “ sub - politics ” goes beyond Giddens ’ s theory of

reflexive modernity in offering the theoretical possibility of a complete
transformation of social forms. For Beck, decisions made in sub - politics
may now alter the institutional contexts in which they are made; such
decisions precisely concern the realization of one course of action, and
thus the constitution of one possible institutional form among various