Amazon.com description: Product Description: A series of accessible conversations between Ulrich Beck and the journalist Johannes Willms form the basis of this volume. The conversations reveal and explore the key elements in Beck's thought and succeed in shedding new light onto these major themes as well as providing an insight into some of the commitments and beliefs that they rest upon. Ulrich Beck is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential contemporary social thinkers. His work on the risk society and more recent writings on globalization have put him at the forefront of contemporary debates. The book presents Beck's ideas in a clear and lucid manner, and should therefore be beneficial for anyone seeking to come to grips with his work.