Modern industrialised societies have been described both as knowledge societies and as risk societies. The article analyses the relations between the terms knowledge, information, data, uncertainty, ignorance, and risk, and discusses the sense in which a society can be characterised by one of them. The role of uncertainty and risk in modern society is further examined. An explanation is offered why it need not be contradictory to describe present-day societies as both knowledge societies and societies characterised by risk or uncertainty.
