In this issue of RCC Perspectives, a group of scholars reflect on Ulrich Beck’s influential Risk Society (1986). They seek to critically historicize the concept of risk society, considering how it might be a product of its particular time and place as well as what it means for public debate and scholarship in the early twenty-first century. Having met with Ulrich Beck in 2010, the authors discuss possible new lines of inquiry in relation to risk. The authors find many points of agreement with Beck but also qualify and contest his argument; in particular, the contention that our society is characterized by risk to a far greater extent than previous societies.