19. ‘ T r ust’ in modern societies Table adapted from Giddens, 1990, The Consequences of Modernity , p102. Pre-modern General context: overriding importance of localised trust Modern General context: trust relations vested in disembedded abstract systems 1. K inship relations as an organising device for stabilising social ties 1. Personal relationships of friendship or sexual intimacy as means of stabilising social ties 2. The local community as a place , providing famil ia r environment 2. Abstract systems as a means of stabilising relations across indefinite spans of time-space 3. Religious cosmologies as modes of bel ie f and ritual interpreting nature and life 3. Future-orientated , counter-factual thought as a mode of connecting past and present 4. Tradition as a means of connecting present and future; past-orientated
20. ‘ Risk’ in modern societies Table adapted from Giddens, 1990, The Consequences of Modernity , p102. Pre-modern General context: overriding importance of localised trust Modern General context: trust relations vested in disembedded abstract systems 1. Threats and dangers emanating from nature , such as the prevalence of infectious diseases, climatic unreliability, floods, etc 1. Threats and dangers emanating from the reflexivity of modernity 2. The threat of human violence from marauding armies, local warlords, brigands, or robbers 2. The threat of human violence from the industrialisation of war 3. Risk of a fall from religious grace or of malicious magical influence 3. The threat of personal meaninglessness deriving from the reflexivity of modernity as applied to the self