Heike Egner critiques Ulrich Beck’s Risk Society for its pessimistic portrayal of societies grappling with uncertainty. Beck’s later works offer a more optimistic view, proposing “enforced cosmopolitanization” and the necessity of global cooperation to address risks like climate change. Egner questions the feasibility of this imperative, citing differing global perspectives on issues like nuclear energy and climate change. She highlights that Beck’s notion of “cooperate or fail” might be overly idealistic and Eurocentric. Additionally, Egner discusses the role of scientists in the social construction of the world and how it is communicated. Beck’s concept of a “risk society” is a “staging of reality,” where scientific knowledge both identifies and amplifies perceived risks, creating a paradox where science simultaneously seeks to mitigate risks while perpetually identifying new risks.