Corporations, class and the normalization of risk

• In Event: Exploring the Role of Risk in White-Collar/Corporate Crime

Abstract

The language of risk permeates academic, political, economic and cultural discussions of modern capitalist societies. Public policies and private sector innovations are routinely understood through risk discourse. The result is a tendency for analysts to present “riskiness” as universally distributed and experienced, with minimal attention to the differences in the ability of differently situated individuals, institutions and social classes to generate and protect themselves from risks. In this paper we examine the “science of risk” and unpack the complex relationship between risk, class and inequality. We begin with an etymology of the concept of risk, followed by a critical examination of the transnational corporation (TNC), surely the major generator and beneficiary of risks, and argue that the corporation has become the primary mechanism for the (re)production of class relations and resulting inequalities. Using the notion of spatio-temporality and empirical examples of corporate criminality, we demonstrate how class relations have been deepened and extended on a global scale in ways that validate and normalize the risk-taking of TNCs. We conclude with thoughts on how the science of risk can benefit from an inclusion of a relational understanding of class.

Authors

• Steven Bittle, University of Ottawa

• Laureen Snider, Queen's University