Rethinking the Risk Culture: How Has Been a Risk Discourse on US Meat Imports Constructed Across the Nations?

摘要

The present study exploresthe distinctive way of constructing risk discourses with the exemplar case of South Korean protests against US meat imports during early 2008. Especially, the researcher highlights the contemporary globalized market can be characterized as global market of ?organized irresponsibility? which leads us to rethink contemporary risk culture. Statistical assessment of risk, though is usually judge the likelihood that a damaging event will take place in the future and to predict the scale of such an event as well it does not associated with explaining what and why people recognize as risk, nor do they address individual?s fear about taking risks even when they believe there is no ?actual risk? involved in taking part in a certain movement. The researcher expectsthat Anti-US meat import protests in Korea 2008 is worth noting that though the protesters and the government disagreed with each other, each side based its opinion on the notion that it is impossible to calculate risk entirely and clearly by using current scientific methods. Instead, the government and its supporters insisted that they sufficiently calculate the probability of risk happening whereas the protesters argued that calculating probability would be meaningless. The conflict view between two sides reveals particular aspect of globalized risk culture. Specifically, neo-liberal government and policy organs drives their policies based on the scientific belief, thereby contributes to neo-liberal globalization.