Risks and Outlooks Introduction to Social Change Review Special Issue

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> People have always lived under conditions of uncertainty. But how to deal with uncertainty and how security is produced varies depending on the social formation. This paper deals with the handling of uncertainty in modern societies. Modern societies always try to conceptualize uncertainties as action-related, responsible and calculable/predictable ‘risks’. This was a quite successful approach for a long time. However, under the conditions of ‘risk society’, this approach is increasingly difficult to work. Especially in the case of ‘new risks’, the attempt to conceptualize any uncertainty as a predictable and cumulatively controllable risk, can hardly be realized. That's why modern societies must ask for and reflect on a ‘new culture of uncertainty’.</abstract>

Risk. Dealing with Uncertainty in Modern Times

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> With the challenges of inequality so embedded in the political and economic infrastructure and their origin at least in part associated with national and global forces outside and beyond the control of the city, remediation is extraordinarily difficult. Only with innovation and imagination is inequality likely to be touched. Only if we are willing to look at the informal as well as the formal economy, and ignore the common wisdom about corruption and squatting and hidden capital, are we likely to find some partial answers to the burdens under which the most progressive and prosperous cities labour. (Excerpt)</abstract>

Poverty in Abundance: Is Corruption an Answer?

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> The concept of an ‘underclass’ originates in the United States and is wide-spread in political and social science discourse today. Its power is most visible in discussions about deep cuts to social safety nets. The foundation of this discourse is the assigning of negative character traits and behaviours to poor people. This promotes the claim that they have brought negative consequences upon themselves and furthers the idea that poor people are personally responsible for their poverty. Discussion about an ‘underclass’ must be understood in the larger context of a comprehensive neoliberal ideological transformation, or ‘Newspeak’. Newspeak is implicitly based on the schema of a game in which everyone has the same chances, but which inevitably results in winners and losers.</abstract>

The 'Underclass' Debate – A Discourse that Maligns People Living in Poverty

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> The most obvious lesson from the recent crisis is that today's version of unfettered capitalism is unable to selfcorrect. For the past 30 years and more, perhaps, the neoliberal model of capitalism has ruled supreme, promoting ultimate freedom in markets and the globalisation of finance to apparently deliver endless prosperity to all through consumption-led growth. The result has been massive environmental damage, depletion of natural resources and a growing gap between rich and poor. The model is unravelling, as the hidden costs are surfacing everywhere. Asian governments are being called upon to wake up and understand that to rely on the market to correct the inefficiencies in the allocation of resources is at best futile and naive and at worst plain dishonest.</abstract>

Shock Therapy – Rethinking the Global Order

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> Voluntary simplicity is not about living in poverty; it is about living with balance. This contribution illuminates the pattern of changes that an increasing number of people around the world are making their everyday lives as an active response to the challenges of our times. By embracing a lifeway of simplicity - characterized by a compassionate and ecological consciousness, frugal consumption, and inner development - people can change their lives and, in the process, move the world toward sustainable prosperity.</abstract>

Voluntary Simplicity – A Path to Sustainable Prosperity

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> This paper presents some dimensions of the lifestyle discourse which have become relevant in recent years in science and public. The discourse that had initially focused on the limits of growth increasingly showed the destructive consequences of the materialistic consumer way of life and discussed sustainable lifestyles. The commodification and infantilization of the consumers who are involved in the commodity structure of consumerist lifestyle have been criticized. For some time an increasing emphasis is found for problems that extend beyond one's own life. With increasing empathy the personal lifestyle is widely based on relationships and contexts outside the immediate sphere of life. Accordingly, a lifestyle of voluntary simplicity is propagated. The consistent postmaterialistic orientation, which means a renunciation of the consumer capitalism, is regarded as its central feature.</abstract>

The Lifestyle Discourse in Consumer Capitalism

AHEAD OF PRINT

Volume 21 (2023): Issue 1 (December 2023)

Volume 20 (2022): Issue 1 (December 2022)

Volume 19 (2021): Issue 1 (December 2021)

Volume 18 (2020): Issue 1 (December 2020) Special issue: Migration, food and agriculture: Insights into what we eat and how our food is produced at the beginning of the third millennium

Volume 17 (2019): Issue 1 (December 2019)

Volume 16 (2018): Issue 1-2 (December 2018) Special issue: Debating Immigration in a Country of Emigration

Volume 15 (2017): Issue 1-2 (December 2017)

Volume 14 (2016): Issue 2 (December 2016)

Volume 14 (2016): Issue 1 (July 2016)

Volume 13 (2015): Issue 2 (December 2015)

Volume 13 (2015): Issue 1 (July 2015)

Volume 12 (2014): Issue 2 (December 2014)

Volume 12 (2014): Issue 1 (July 2014)

Volume 11 (2013): Issue 2 (December 2013)

Volume 11 (2013): Issue 1 (July 2013) Risks and Outlooks

Volume 10 (2012): Issue 2 (December 2012)

Volume 10 (2012): Issue 1 (June 2012)

Volume 9 (2011): Issue 2 (December 2011)

Volume 9 (2011): Issue 1 (June 2011)

Volume 8 (2010): Issue 2 (December 2010)

Volume 8 (2010): Issue 1 (July 2010)

Social Change Review

 Publishing House and Owner: Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania  Social Change Review was founded in 2003. Between 2003 and 2009 the journal appeared under the name Revista de Sociologie covering a wide range of issues related to sociology, social work and social policy. The journal was relaunched with a new Editorial Board and a new name in 2010. Currently, the accepted manuscripts are published online first, in a continuous process, being then included in an annual volume, at the end of each calendar year.  Why subscribe and read   covers a wide range of issues related to sociology, social work and social policy;  high quality of papers;   Why submit   fair and constructive peer review by experts in the field  provide high-quality editing  indexed in many international databases   Rejection Rate   35-40%   Subjects  Social Sciences, Sociology, Social Policy, Social Work  Archiving  Sciendo archives the contents of this journal in Portico - digital long-term preservation service of scholarly books, journals and collections.  Plagiarism Policy  The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System's users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscripts screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process. 

Volume 11 (2013): Issue 1 (July 2013) - Risks and Outlooks

Risks and Outlooks

Volume 11 (2013): Issue 1 (July 2013)