"Risk society": The cult of theory and the millennium?

The relation between theory: and empirical data in sociology and social pol icy is explored through a critique of Ulrich Beck's influential book, Risk Society. Consideration is given to the extent to which a book that purports to describe contemporary societies in general is actually rooted in the un ique circumstances of postwar Germany. The various arguments of Risk Societ y are reviewed and tested against relevant empirical reports from England. Many of the historical and contemporary generalizations made by Beck are sh own to be questionable. The conclusion reflects on the popularity of the ge nre in which Beck is working and questions the consistent glumness of its a ttitude to contemporary societies-whether those of the 1890s or the 1990s. The new millennium might be a time for a new spirit and the rejection of th e nostalgia and conservatism of humanities-oriented scholarship.