Vom Nutzen und Nachteil des Scheiterns für die Gesellschaft. Grundzüge einer soziologischen Theorie des Bedauerns

This essay offers a sociological theory of regret as a sub-topic of the sociological theory of risk. As case study, this essay deals with the so-called CAT-options, that is, financial instruments used as insurance coverages against catastrophic dangers (heartquake, hurricans, tsunami, etc.). The core idea of this paper is that derivatives represent a type of insurance against surprises whose basic structure is a highly complicated temporal reflexivity. This essay investigates the main socio-structural circumstances which make such temporal reflexivity possible.