Triggered by Jean-François Lyotard's Condition postmoderne (1979), but translated to sociology by Ulrich Beck's Risikogesellschaft (1986), the debate about transformations of modernity has been going on for several decades by now. The initial challenge was to overcome the notion that "modern societies", once firmly established, would no longer undergo major social transformations. By the early 1990s, this objective could be considered accomplished