Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACT OF COVID–19: RAPID TRANSFORMATION OF THE 21ST CENTURY SOCIETY, Hamza Şimşek,Marcel Mečiar, Editör, IJOPEC PUBLICATION, London, ss.171-186, 2021
Throughout the ages, world societies have been classified based on certain characteristics unique to them. Such classifications are based on the formal qualities
revealed by the scientific and technological developments that shape societies. Acccording to some authors, with the scientific and technological developments experienced, modernism has now completed its evolution and entered a new era
for today’s societies. Scientific studies defining this new social era and revealing
its framework have attempted to determine the characteristics of the new society by developing different concepts. These include Bell’s “Post-Industrial Society”, Manuel Castells’ “Network Society”, and Anthony Giddens’ “Late Modernity”
studies. The common point of these conceptualizations is the reality of the globalized world created by scientific and technological development and its reflections. In the literature, the view that defines today’s societies as post-modern societies is also very common.
Ulrich Beck used “Rick Society” concept to define the stage after industrial society. Beck, defined “risk” as the state of being systematically faced with the threats
posed by the modernization process. The strategies that arise depending on the
impacts of the said risk on society in the scope of “Risk Society” concept. Beck
points out that as a result of the insecurity, uncertainty and uncontrollability
faced by the new society, which he names the emerging risk society, all national,
local, class and individual spheres are affected and have to change. He builds Risk Society Theory on this basis. Accordingly, societies faced with great threats
feel that they are not safe and enter into an ongoing struggle to escape. In order to prevent this situation, it is accepted that reflexive modernization should
be adopted. Beck, who is the pioneer of the theory of risk society pointed out
that modernity must now face the consequences it creates. Modernity must be
reshaped as it reflects on itself.
In this study, the social order emerged in the context of the new risk and uncertainty perception caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which was started as a
pneumonia epidemic caused by a novel coronavirus in Wuhan city of China in
December 2019 and then spread to many countries of the world to create a global
crisis was tried to be explained in relation to Ulrich Beck’s Risk Society Theory.