L’insicurezza può a ragione essere definita l’ostinata compagna della condizione umana. Paradossalmente, essa non è mai stata così diffusa e così evocata come nella società in cui avrebbe meno motivo di esistere: quella occidentale contemporanea. Il paradosso è frutto di un complesso insieme di fattori in parte esistenziali, in parte storici.
Abstract
A recurrent debate in social sciences concerns the distinction between unsafety as an ʺobjectiveʺ status and unsafety as a ʺsubjective ʺ one. The latter is in turn generated by both inside (psychological) and outside (social and economic) drivers, politics and the media system being the leading actors. In order to clarify the paradoxes of unsafety (fear of negative events is not correlated to the extent of their effects nor to the probability of their occurence rather to the intentionality of the authors) we distinguish among dangers (a non intentional damage as a natural disaster), risks (an unexpected negative outcome of a positively oriented intention) and threats (an intentional damage caused by an enemy). The distinction is not an academic one as far as it involves different approaches to security policies.