Beck’s latest book, following up on his groundbreaking 1992 work Risk Society, which argued that the contemporary threat of catastrophe (particularly environmental catastrophe) was fundamentally reshaping global society. In the last 20 years Beck’s analysis has only become more relevant, touching as it does on threats of terrorism, climate change, financial crisis, epidemics of disease, etc. See in particular Chapter 3 The ‘Cosmopolitan Moment’ of World Risk Society or: Enforced Enlightenment and Chapter 5 Global Public Sphere and Global Subpolitics or: How Real is Catastrophic Climate Change?