The five theses serve to illuminate the "social architecture and political dynamics inherent in the potential civilizatory threat to existence".

Thesis One : "Knowledge is Dependent on Modernisation Risks".

Modern risks are fundamentally different to wealth and resources. They are invisible, irreversible, and based on causal interpretations. Unemployment is obvious, "DDT in your tea" is not. They are thus established as scientific information, which is open to social definition.

Generally, expertise is relied upon for the information which defines or does not define something as a risk. Thus threat situations create "social dependencies of information and knowledge", that are immune to class relations. Threatened parties are most frequently totally out of control, not being involved in risk definition, responsibility or "repair". They are under the control of the knowledge creators/bearers - and "the norms, interests and mistakes inherent in that knowledge".

[Beck maintains a quite relativistic position to scientific knowledge.]

Beck’s metaphor: everyday life becomes full of the Trojan horses, out of which the risk experts pop, all trying to define what is to be feared.

[The danger of this analysis is that danger might be overlooked due to the perception of exaggeration of danger which might occur when danger becomes a political commodity].

Thus media and others in positions of risk definition, take up key sociopolitical positions.

It is also important to regard the effect that the threatening potential of the forces of production are having on science. Scope for scientific research is getting narrower as the threat increases. The threat of error in scientific and the fact that everyday science deals with potentially destructive forces, works against the normative ideals of scientific behaviour.

Thesis Two : "Modernisation Risks Explode the Class-Structure".

"Necessity is hierarchical, smog is democratic".

When risk expands, social danger situations are created. These reflect inequalities of strata/class, whilst having a different logic of distribution.

Boomerang Effect/Ecological Devaluation

(Modernisation risks) have a boomerang effect, which breaks up the class structure. Even the rich and powerful are not safe from them. They threaten legitimation, property and profits as well as health (p88).

Recognition of risks leads to ecological devaluations and expropriations (e.g., rainforest destruction reduces property value), which contradict the profit and property motivations (which drive on the process of industrialisation).

Risks introduce international inequalities -both (industrial to 3rd world) and (industrial to industrial) international relationships. They undermine the competency of the nation states, as trade in dangerous substances is universal and supra-national.

"Within their range and effects, risks have an equalising effect. Their new political power lies precisely here. In this sense, risk societies are not class societies"(p92).