A pandemic in the risk society: The example of COVID-19

The Risk Society corresponds to a definition that expresses the multiplicity of risks that people face today. Especially with the modern period, rapidly advancing scientific and technological developments have led to the emergence of many risks that they could not foresee and control. This unpredictability and uncontrollability manifests itself in the form of uncertainty, anxiety and fear in society and in the individual. In addition, the fact that the mind and scientific knowledge have become a source of power with the modern period, and the modern subject's thinking that he will establish all kinds of dominance over nature without leaving any room for uncertainty, has been the main source of the risks that the subject is in. In this context, the study aims to analyze the COVID-19 pandemic, which has recently affected all humanity around the world, based on the German Sociologist Ulrich Beck's concept of Risk Society. Therefore, our study will be read through Ulrich Beck's concept of risk, Pandemic and Covid-19 concepts. In connection with this, Anthony Giddens' perspective on the concept of risk has also been comparatively evaluated in terms of the importance of the existing literature in sociology.