ABSTRACT

This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book demonstrates the problems people face in the twenty-first century is not intractable. In the Risk Society the personal is sacrificed on the altar of profit. In the world of work choice is circumscribed. Risk is an enduring theme of modern life. It permeates the political, economic and environmental domains. Major crises from Challenger, Bhopal, Tylenol or Chernobyl to Exxon Valdez and Braer are no longer exceptional events. Indeed the risk of crisis is even becoming structural as large networks become more complex, more vulnerable and more independent. Detroit's experience suggests an uneven epochal messiness. In Detroit modernity co-exists with late-modernity in an unequal relationship: Detroit's motor and parts companies and large-scale urban farmers can summon significantly more economic and political capital than the city's innovative micro-farmers.