The financial crisis and the concept of risk in the European Union

This announcement focuses on the concept of crises and thus, financial crisis and how it shapes today's European society. Our starting point in order to understand and analyze today's reality, which is dominated by a financial and social crisis, is the concept of risk as initially defined by Niklas Luhmann and later on by Ulrich Beck. This society is governed by the non-knowledge of the crisis' deeper causes, on which we find the possibility of a hazard and destruction, a possibility based on the lack of direction. In this framework, we investigate the essence of democracy, the existence of power (in particular, power accumulation) and how it is combined with the concept of responsibility for the future of Europe and the rhetoric breakdown of Europe, deriving from the political attitude of indecisiveness. Sociology is the science, which should provide answers to all the above questions. (C) 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd.