Challenging the Orthodoxy in Risk Management

Abstract

The structure and nature of society in the developed and nearly-developed countries has been radically transformed since the beginning of this century (Drucker, 1995) and no moreso than in the last 30 years (Thurow, 1996: p. 21), although the seeds of change date back much further (Giddens, 1990). The industrial economy has overwhelmed an agrarian way of life, an evolved form of which is still required for the production of food, but is no longer deemed central to humankind's existence. Society in the developed free-market countries now has a different configuration from that which it had in 1900. It works through different processes and suffers from a steadily widening range of problems. There has been a qualitative and quantitative shift in people's professional and personal lives.