Historical Perspectives On Risk and Morality

Anthony Giddens argued that the 'risk society' presupposes the 'evaporation of morality'. But like other aspects of the sociology of risk, this proposition has never been empirically substantiated. This paper will historically explore the inverse relationship between risk and morality, focusing on the language of policy debates in the UK on contentious social issues. The balance between arguments grounded in more straightforward ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ and those based in risk and harm reduction will be analysed, focusing on four particular periods: the late Victorian, the liberalising legislation of the 1960s, the risk politics begun during the Thatcher/Major years, and current Coalition policy language – in view of Cameron’s intent to ‘remoralise’ discourse. The intention is to cast new light on contemporary debates such as around drugs policy and ‘policy-led evidence’, where the tension between probabilistic calculation and moral judgement is marked, and to direct new theoretical attention to the useful contrast of risk to morality.