The fragility of modern societies Book

	List of Tables and Figures
	Preface
	Acknowledgments
	Introduction	1
1	The Texture of Modern Societies	9
	The Nation-state	9
	Functional Differentiation	11
	Rationalizing the Irrational	14
	Traditional and Modern Societies	16
	The Extension of Social Conduct	18
2	Knowledge Societies	19
	The Emergence of Knowledge Societies	20
	The Society of Societies	24
3	Knowledge about Knowledge	31
	Knowledge as a Capacity for Action	35
	Culture and Knowledge	36
	From Capacities to Realization	38
	Incremental Knowledge	39
	Knowledge and Information	41
	Limits to the Power of Knowledge	45
4	Fusion through Dissolution	53
	The Disappearance of Human Agency	54
	A Surplus of Social Manipulation	55
	Moral Indifference, Power and Science	58
5	Fragile Social Structures	64
	The World of Post-industrial Societies	65
	Collective and Individual Capacities to Act	67
6	Governing Knowledge Societies	71
	The Stalled Society	75
	The Politics of Knowledge Societies	81
	Political Action and Knowledgeability	90
7	Fragmentation and Homogenization of Social Life	93
	The Advent of Mass Societies	93
	The Globalization of the World	97
	Globalization in Historical Times	101
	The Divisions of the World	104
	The Reconfiguration of the Globe	109
8	Policing Knowledge	112
	Knowledge Politics	113
	Regulating Knowledge	114
	The Social Control of Knowledge Claims in Science	116
	The Societal Regulation of Knowledge	117
	The Virchow-Haeckel Controversy	119
	The Public and Science	123
	The Developments of Social Controls	124
	Knowledge Hierarchies and Monopolies	126
9	Emancipation and Knowledge	132
	The Knowledge/Power Axis	133
	The New Risks of Knowledge	137
	Modern Social Movements	140
	Criticism of the Formal Concept of Risk	144
	On the Difference between Decision-makers and those Affected by Risks of Decisions	145
	The Return of Uncertainty in Society	146
	Risk of Decision in the Context of Fragile Knowledge	148
10	Knowledge, Uncertainty and Contingency	150
	Prospects or what Remains Open	151
	Statistical Appendix	156
	Notes	159
	Bibliography	189
	Subject Index	213
	Name Index	216