Risk in the Age of Information

‘In advanced modernity the social production of wealth is systematically accompanied by the social production of risks’ (Beck, 2009: 19). The opening statement of Beck’s contribution to literature on the concept of a ‘risk society’ tells us that the very notion of a risk society is heavily associated with the issue of the production of wealth. The concept of a ‘risk society’ is most commonly associated with the German sociologist Ulrich Beck (2009) who has argued that the development and ‘progress’ of the post-modern society has led to an increase of risks within society, whether it be associated with technological progression or the production of wealth in the modernization of society.