Construction of Public Security Risk Governance System under the View of Risk Society Theory

With the development of economy,China has to fight against the increasing public security risk. The theory of risk society points out that the traditional system of hierarchical management should be transformed into the governance system led by government and participated in by multiple parties to avoid and reduce risk in modern society. In order to achieve modernization of the national governance system and capacity,we have to deal with these two important subjects,that is,what can we learn from the Western risk society theory and how to establish a scientific and efficient public security risk management system based on the characteristics of modern public security risk.

From risk society to audit society

Contrary to what is sometimes claimed, the 2008 banking crisis occurred in an ultra-regulated environment. Legislative and regulatory financial-security regimes have in fact multiplied in recent years. The economic crisis is accelerating the transition of the risk society towards the audit society. But the G20 （Group of Twenty） declarations in Washington and London also reveal a managerial utopia： the march towards a society of confidence or harmony that would make controls superfluous. In this context, the article seeks to call upon philosophical, sociological and managerial references to risk, from Foucault to Power by way of Beck, Giddens ＆ Ewald, to shed light on the official declarations of the leaders of the world＇s main economies. The documentary corpus examined includes all the G20 works published between November 8, 2008 （preparation for the Washington Summit） and April 2, 2009 （conclusions of the London Summit）. The political philosophy underlying the G20＇s works remains fundamentally liberal, even though saving the worldwide market economy involves established security systems as well as self-control and control of others. In the end, the leaders do not decide between reinforcing the existing tools and inventing new systems. The updating of security technologies is meant to serve the preservation of the capitalist managerial utopia. This gives rise to a new variant of Beck＇s risk-society paradigm, too often confined to environmental threats alone, in three phases： （1） The crisis is a consequence of financial modernity and in particular of the inefficiency of regulation in the face of growing sophistication in techniques; （2） To restore confidence, the states and international institutions want, paradoxically, both to reinforce regulation and promote flexibility; （3） Thereupon, flexi-security controlled by worldwide economic governance characterizes the second financial modernity.

Change in Public Administration from the Perspective of Risk Society

In the context of risk society, public administration is facing more complex circumstances, which will inevitably call for an overall restructuring. In the dimension of circumstances, extreme disasters, transboundary crisis and emerging risks create the complex context of public administration. In the dimension of structure, the original structure of public administration still exists but its mode of operation is subject to change. In the meantime, the adaptation to complex scenarios of potential risk society will bring innovations to the structure of public administration so that the structure can develop from a hierarchical mode to a network mode on the whole. In the dimension of process, driven by shifts between order and chaos within the social system, public administration will also undergo frequent shifts between routine administration and emergency management. The core of public administration in the context of risk society is its emergency management, which needs to strike a balance between security and development at the value goal level. As to institutional design, emergency management should be characteristic of an all-hazards approach, multi-organization participation, whole-process management and overall adaptive management. Both the theory and the practice of public administration in China need to be reviewed to address challenges of risk society and explore a new approach that is suitable for China's political situation and can be included into our global risk society governance.

“World Risk Society” Governance: The Paradigm of Complexity and Chinese Participation

The world is entering a highly uncertain“risk society.”Risk is a major feature of contemporary society,changing society’s operational logic and rules;society’s values and modes of behavior are being systematically reconstructed,and global governance is evolving into the governance of a“world risk society.”At present,global risk governance is highly fragmented and inefficient,and the existing modes of public management and international governance are still unsuited to the requirements of risk society governance.Modern society is an intricate system of endogenous complexity,unpredictability and fragility.Complexity is the fundamental mechanism driving the formation of global risk society,a society whose governance rests on the paradigm of complexity and on Chinese participation.Research on the complexity mechanism behind the formation of world risk society and the construction of values,culture and mechanisms that address its governance is significant for both theory and practice,enabling us to develop synergetic governance and an antifragile capacity that will identify and overcome risks.

The Role of the National Significant Seismic Monitoring and Protection Regions Institution:From the Perspective of the RiskSociety Theory

Earthquake disaster risk,as a typical social disaster risk,is one of the most important risks in modern Chinese society.This study gives definitions of the institution,describes the formation history,the connotations and development and analyzes its role in the control of major social risks caused by earthquakes.Finally,the paper presents recommendations for continuous improvement of this institution under the guidance of risk society theory,and for its application to the government reform and social governance.

Distorted Alarms： The Epidemic Narrative and the Media Story The 2009-10 Swine Flu in the Portuguese News

In April 2009, a new strain of influenza subtype H 1N 1 emerged due to the rearrangement of two RNA segments. The strain incorporated two segments of the genome of porcine origin and was officially designated as A/CaliforniaJ4/2009/H1N1. In June 2009, alarmed by the infection＇s progress, the World Health Organization （WHO） declared the ＂level six＂ of the geographical progression scale for epidemics and kept it at that level until August of the following year. The Portuguese media activated the public health alarm and integrated it into its agenda, but the volume and severity indicators of the news coverage did not correspond to the epidemiological indicators of progression. This paper describes how two narratives with different rhythms for the swine flu pandemic de facto emerged.

The Swine Flu Pandemics in Portugal Through Newspaper Humour

Using semiotic and discourse analysis methodologies to uncover denotative and connotative meanings in journalism production, following Roland Barthes＇s work, our research analyzed newspaper humour published in one Portuguese newspaper about the global build-up of the swine flu （H1N1） scare of 2009-2010. Results demonstrate that humour was much quicker than traditional journalistic templates to assign responsibilities and depict failures in the crisis management system, precociously suggesting that the pandemic could be just another moral panic similar to the bird flu of 2005. Through humour, newspapers stressed the cyclic nature of health risks, reducing the impact of dramatic information on the audience. It is therefore suggested that the sociological analysis of a media outlet in the context of a complex and emotional case such as the 2009-2010 pandemic implies its deconstruction layer by layer in order to obtain a clear picture of the mechanisms of social construction of reality.

Reconstructing the Data Crime Governance Model from the Perspective of Criminal Compliance

With the advent of the risk society and the era of big data,criminal law must respond to data crime in a more proactive manner.The traditional way of conviction and sentencing adopted by the current criminal law for data crime can no longer meet the requirements of the times.Compliance should be introduced into criminal law to improve the governance system of data crime.There are three ways to incorporate compliance into criminal law:(1)as the exemption cause of enterprise crime;(2)as the general circumstances of sentencing in the General Provisions of Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China;(3)as the special circumstances of sentencing in the Specific Provisions of Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China.The latter two approaches are more suited to China’s national conditions.

Research on Environmental Pollution regulation in China’s Construction Industry

China has proposed the notion of sustainable development in the framework of a hazardous society in response to global environmental challenges.Research on regulatory concerns is critical for ensuring the application of the concept of sustainable development in the building industry.China’s regulation,on the other hand,suffers from a lack of supply and an ambiguous value orientation.The former is a symptom of the current regulatory structure,whereas the latter is the root of the problem.To overcome the value-oriented dilemma,some studies plan to conduct research using the logic of the norm.This has the disadvantage of having a limited field of vision.The interaction between man and nature should be considered while examining value orientation.When anthropocentrism,ecocentrism,and anthropocentrism in ecology are compared to the environmental legislation in my nation,it is clear that anthropocentrism in ecology is the value orientation that should be followed at the moment.Three challenges that require attention are presented based on this value orientation,as well as the uniqueness of the construction industry and risk society theory.

The monetary root of financialisation

Marxism has a strong influence on Western left-wing economists’understanding of financialisation,in that they regard financialisation as the consequence of the transformation of capitalism.Neoclassical economics and finance scholars tend to think of financialisation(financial development)as not exclusively occurring within the economic system of capitalism but as existing throughout an entire human history filled with numerous financial innovations.The unprecedented change of the monetary system ascribed to the collapse of the Bretton Woods System,among all historical and systemic changes,is the strongest underlying impetus to financialisation.Financialisation is the unintended consequence of a change in the monetary system from commodity money to credit money.Taking a more in-depth point of view,financialisation is philosophically a means for human beings to cope with the advent of a risk society,reflecting the advance of instrumental rationality,and hence is the embodiment of late modernity.