Abstract
This paper examines the possibility of a sociological description of the Tohoku-Pacific Ocean Earthquake from the viewpoint of social system theory. Ulrich Beck’s “Risk Society” was published in 1986, the year of Chernobyl catastrophe, the Challenger accident and the pollution of the Rhine River. Since then sociological or (social) psychological risk research has had a great impact on discourse concerning risk. But in 1990s numerous technical analysts have moderated the impact of these sociological and psychological risk theories. Presumably this process will be repeated in Japan. It is necessary to note this process of change in disaster risk discourse from 1986 to 1990s. In sections 2 and 3 we will examine the possibility of a sociological description of “3.11” and discuss whether the concept of “systemic-risk” that had been originally applied to the problems of financial affairs is helpful in macroscopic description about this catastrophe. But the systemic risk also contains the complex process of “risk transformation”. This concept was introduced in the social system theory of Niklas Luhmann and contributes to the analysis of the dynamic process of systemic risk, namely the transformation or “construction” of risk by one (social) system that operates according to its own communicative logic. This can create a new type of risk for other social systems or local communities. Finally, I consider the task of the sociological theoretical research that should be based on second-order observation (an observation of an observer as such) even in the era of “crisis”.
