Ulrich Beck
Ulrich Beck was a German sociologist and one of the most important social scientists in the world . His work focused on questions of uncontrollability, ignorance and uncertainty in the modern age, and he coined the terms “risk society” and “second modernity” or “reflexive modernization”. The following works of sociologist Ulrich Beck have very much influenced my artworks :
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How Climate Change Might Save the World: Metamorphosis.
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Remapping social inequalities in an age of climate change: for a cosmopolitan renewal of sociology.
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Climate for Change, or how to create a Green Modernity.
His theory connects climate change with a lot of social inequalities and has helped me understand the term of vulnerability and how to portray social problems from an environmental prism. Furthermore, the term vulnerability (to be wounded) helped me to explore and develop my artworks “Band Aids”, “Turn it off”, “Sold as Seen” and “Fruition”.
Some of the quotes of Ulrich Beck that attracted me are:
“Social inequalities and Climate Change are two sides of the same coin. One cannot conceptualize inequalities and power any longer without taking the consequences of climate change into account, and one cannot conceptualize climate change without taking its impacts on social inequalities and power into account.”
“A sociological understanding of vulnerability certainly has a crucial relationship to the future, but also has historical depth. The ‘cultural wounds’ that, for example, result from the colonial past, constitute an important part of the background to understanding border-transcending climate conflicts. The more marginal the available economic and political options are, the more vulnerable a particular group or population. The question that allows the unit of investigation to be determined is this: what constitutes vulnerability in a particular context, and how did it become what it is?”
“Our whole way of life is attuned to industrial society modernity – with its extravagant use of resources and indifference to nature, which is disappearing t hanks to the triumph of industrialism. “
