Michael Wearing Social Work

The German theoretical sociologist, Ulrich Beck, provides a framework for understanding shifts towards a risk society as a post-welfare future. Key to this is his argument that reflexive modernisation brings a more intense awareness of socio-environmental risk and that the risk society is now everywhere apparent. Beck is an established social theorist in European and Australian sociology especially in health and cultural research including several recent critiques (Dean 1999; Culpitt 1999; Lupton 1999). However, his more general framework on reflexive modernity and its significance for human service delivery has not been subject to closer empirical and critical scrutiny. Beck has developed the concepts of Ôsub-politicsÕ and Ôorganised irresponsibilityÕ especially in relation to ecological hazards. These concepts can also be applied to manufactured poverty risks in the shift from state social protection to contractualism and privatisation in Australian welfare arrangements. The paper focuses on contractualism and accountability as risk discourses in human services, and includes a discussion of how new service practices around discovering and assessing risk affect the everyday lives of service providers and clients. Some implications of BeckÕs thesis for research on risk, welfare and otherness in Australian human services are explored, and how ou