The Fragility of Modern Societies
Knowledge and Risk in the Information Age
- Nico Stehr - Zeppelin University, Germany
This is a very exhaustive book and a good read on a complex and highly relevant topic. Unfortunately, it needs a bit of updating and, hence, I can not recommend it to my students but will have to refer to the more recent scientific discussion published in journals.
Was this book updated with recent scientific findings and theories, I would certainly recommend it for adoption.
The book cover a great deal of very interesting historical ground and offers a wide sociological analysis of change in society. I passed it to some students on our undergraduate programme for their views too These students reported they felt it was at too high a level. So while we are not adopting it at this programme, I will be considering it for a soon to be delivered MSc programme.
This is an exceptional book which provides, as other Stehr's books, a clear and, at the same time, profound analysis of important developments in sociology of knowledge and how it is used by diffferent institutions.
It offers an enriching perspective on the role of knowledge, which appears to be always in transitions.
