Adriana Petryna
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691151663
- eISBN:
- 9781400845095
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691151663.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
On April 26, 1986, Unit Four of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded in then Soviet Ukraine. More than 3.5 million people in Ukraine alone, not to mention many citizens of surrounding countries, ...
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On April 26, 1986, Unit Four of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded in then Soviet Ukraine. More than 3.5 million people in Ukraine alone, not to mention many citizens of surrounding countries, are still suffering the effects. This is the first book to comprehensively examine the vexed political, scientific, and social circumstances that followed the Chernobyl disaster. Tracing the story from an initial lack of disclosure to post-Soviet democratizing attempts to compensate sufferers, the book uses anthropological tools to take us into a world whose social realities are far more immediate and stark than those described by policymakers and scientists. It asks: What happens to politics when state officials fail to inform their fellow citizens of real threats to life? What are the moral and political consequences of remedies available in the wake of technological disasters? The book illustrates how the Chernobyl explosion and its aftermath have not only shaped the course of an independent nation but have made health a negotiated realm of entitlement. It tracks the emergence of a “biological citizenship” in which assaults on health become the coinage through which sufferers stake claims for biomedical resources, social equity, and human rights. The book provides an anthropological framework for understanding the politics of emergent democracies, the nature of citizenship claims, and everyday forms of survival as they are interwoven with the profound changes that accompanied the collapse of the Soviet Union.Less
On April 26, 1986, Unit Four of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded in then Soviet Ukraine. More than 3.5 million people in Ukraine alone, not to mention many citizens of surrounding countries, are still suffering the effects. This is the first book to comprehensively examine the vexed political, scientific, and social circumstances that followed the Chernobyl disaster. Tracing the story from an initial lack of disclosure to post-Soviet democratizing attempts to compensate sufferers, the book uses anthropological tools to take us into a world whose social realities are far more immediate and stark than those described by policymakers and scientists. It asks: What happens to politics when state officials fail to inform their fellow citizens of real threats to life? What are the moral and political consequences of remedies available in the wake of technological disasters? The book illustrates how the Chernobyl explosion and its aftermath have not only shaped the course of an independent nation but have made health a negotiated realm of entitlement. It tracks the emergence of a “biological citizenship” in which assaults on health become the coinage through which sufferers stake claims for biomedical resources, social equity, and human rights. The book provides an anthropological framework for understanding the politics of emergent democracies, the nature of citizenship claims, and everyday forms of survival as they are interwoven with the profound changes that accompanied the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Adriana Petryna
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691151663
- eISBN:
- 9781400845095
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691151663.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This book examines how government and scientific interventions have recast the Chernobyl aftermath as a complex political and health experience with its own bureaucratic and legal ramifications. In ...
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This book examines how government and scientific interventions have recast the Chernobyl aftermath as a complex political and health experience with its own bureaucratic and legal ramifications. In Ukraine, a decade after the Chernobyl disaster, waves of citizens poured into medical offices for care and compensation. Their “idiosyncratic” diseases would now encode different kinds of treatment discriminations and different kinds of neglect. The book shows how the Chernobyl explosion has been shaped as a tekhnohenna katastrofa, or technogenic catastrophe, and how Ukraine's response to the disaster combines humanism with strategies of governance and state building, market strategies with forms of economic and political corruption. The book focuses on the emergence of a collective and individual survival strategy known as biological citizenship, which it argues reflects a failure of politics and science to account for human welfare, particularly the welfare of Chernobyl sufferers.Less
This book examines how government and scientific interventions have recast the Chernobyl aftermath as a complex political and health experience with its own bureaucratic and legal ramifications. In Ukraine, a decade after the Chernobyl disaster, waves of citizens poured into medical offices for care and compensation. Their “idiosyncratic” diseases would now encode different kinds of treatment discriminations and different kinds of neglect. The book shows how the Chernobyl explosion has been shaped as a tekhnohenna katastrofa, or technogenic catastrophe, and how Ukraine's response to the disaster combines humanism with strategies of governance and state building, market strategies with forms of economic and political corruption. The book focuses on the emergence of a collective and individual survival strategy known as biological citizenship, which it argues reflects a failure of politics and science to account for human welfare, particularly the welfare of Chernobyl sufferers.
Adriana Petryna
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691151663
- eISBN:
- 9781400845095
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691151663.003.0003
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter explores some of the prehistory of reception of the Chernobyl disaster in various aspects of Soviet-era life from the perspective of individuals and families living outside ...
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This chapter explores some of the prehistory of reception of the Chernobyl disaster in various aspects of Soviet-era life from the perspective of individuals and families living outside state-designated zones. The discussion focuses on events in a time when bureaucratic lines between sufferers and nonsufferers were just beginning to be drawn, and when other informal structures of accountability regarding state-related abuses were in place. From the perspective of one family, the chapter shows how individuals reached the limits of their ability to reason, narrate, and project futures in the context of an invisible nuclear hazard. It explains how life narratives and family histories reflected a vexed and complex history of Ukraine, but also how these histories informed interpretations of the Chernobyl experience.Less
This chapter explores some of the prehistory of reception of the Chernobyl disaster in various aspects of Soviet-era life from the perspective of individuals and families living outside state-designated zones. The discussion focuses on events in a time when bureaucratic lines between sufferers and nonsufferers were just beginning to be drawn, and when other informal structures of accountability regarding state-related abuses were in place. From the perspective of one family, the chapter shows how individuals reached the limits of their ability to reason, narrate, and project futures in the context of an invisible nuclear hazard. It explains how life narratives and family histories reflected a vexed and complex history of Ukraine, but also how these histories informed interpretations of the Chernobyl experience.
Adriana Petryna
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691151663
- eISBN:
- 9781400845095
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691151663.003.0008
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter summarizes the book's main findings and their implications. It describes the Chernobyl aftermath as a prism that reflects, contains, and reconfigures the vexed political-economic, ...
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This chapter summarizes the book's main findings and their implications. It describes the Chernobyl aftermath as a prism that reflects, contains, and reconfigures the vexed political-economic, scientific, legal, and social circumstances in post-Soviet Ukraine. It emphasizes the disharmony among lawmakers, radiation scientists, health professionals, and sufferers as they stood along the continuum of knowledge production, power, moral sensibility, and self-disclosure. It considers how the radiation research process facilitated the naturalization of illnesses in bodies as a matter of “social health.” The chapter also discusses a number of ethical issues that bear on the fate of Chernobyl sufferers; for example, how future changes in social and economic contexts will affect the legitimacy of compensation mechanisms and categories of suffering. Biological citizenship, it argues, represents a complex intersection of social institutions and the intense vulnerabilities of populations exposed to the determinations of the international political economy.Less
This chapter summarizes the book's main findings and their implications. It describes the Chernobyl aftermath as a prism that reflects, contains, and reconfigures the vexed political-economic, scientific, legal, and social circumstances in post-Soviet Ukraine. It emphasizes the disharmony among lawmakers, radiation scientists, health professionals, and sufferers as they stood along the continuum of knowledge production, power, moral sensibility, and self-disclosure. It considers how the radiation research process facilitated the naturalization of illnesses in bodies as a matter of “social health.” The chapter also discusses a number of ethical issues that bear on the fate of Chernobyl sufferers; for example, how future changes in social and economic contexts will affect the legitimacy of compensation mechanisms and categories of suffering. Biological citizenship, it argues, represents a complex intersection of social institutions and the intense vulnerabilities of populations exposed to the determinations of the international political economy.
Yasuo Onishi
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195127270
- eISBN:
- 9780199869121
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195127270.003.0004
- Subject:
- Biology, Ecology, Biochemistry / Molecular Biology
This chapter discusses methods to determine dissolved and sediment-sorbed radionuclides in rivers, estuaries, coastal waters, oceans, and lakes under accidental and routine radionuclide releases. It ...
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This chapter discusses methods to determine dissolved and sediment-sorbed radionuclides in rivers, estuaries, coastal waters, oceans, and lakes under accidental and routine radionuclide releases. It provides simple but robust analytical solution models to determine site-specific radionuclide concentrations with minimum site-specific data. It has step-by-step instructions with all required information supplied by accompanying tables and figures. The chapter contains many sample calculations. It also discusses a theory of radionuclide transport and fate mechanisms in surface water. The Chernobyl nuclear accident is used to illustrate important mechanisms, radionuclide migration and accumulation, transport and fate modeling, aquatic impacts, and human health effects through aquatic pathways. Thus, this chapter connects the theory to its applications and to the actual Chernobyl nuclear accident assessment.Less
This chapter discusses methods to determine dissolved and sediment-sorbed radionuclides in rivers, estuaries, coastal waters, oceans, and lakes under accidental and routine radionuclide releases. It provides simple but robust analytical solution models to determine site-specific radionuclide concentrations with minimum site-specific data. It has step-by-step instructions with all required information supplied by accompanying tables and figures. The chapter contains many sample calculations. It also discusses a theory of radionuclide transport and fate mechanisms in surface water. The Chernobyl nuclear accident is used to illustrate important mechanisms, radionuclide migration and accumulation, transport and fate modeling, aquatic impacts, and human health effects through aquatic pathways. Thus, this chapter connects the theory to its applications and to the actual Chernobyl nuclear accident assessment.
Adriana Petryna
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691151663
- eISBN:
- 9781400845095
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691151663.003.0002
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter examines the sciences, politics, and international cooperations that informed Soviet state responses to the Chernobyl disaster and how they produced an image of control over ...
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This chapter examines the sciences, politics, and international cooperations that informed Soviet state responses to the Chernobyl disaster and how they produced an image of control over unpredictable and largely unassessed circumstances of risk. More specifically, it investigates the relationship between individual suffering caused by the Chernobyl accident and the technical measures and scales of expertise used to assess radiation-related biological injury in Ukraine. To this end, the chapter considers the work of international scientific networks in patterning initial Soviet remediation strategies and public health responses. It highlights key aspects of the initial Soviet management of the Chernobyl disaster and shows how ambiguities related to the interpretation of radiation-related physical damage subjected post-Chernobyl state interventions and medical surveillance to a variety of competing scientific and political interests. It also considers the so-called Safe Living Concept regarding radiation dose exposure and Soviet-American bioscientific collaboration report on radioactive fallout.Less
This chapter examines the sciences, politics, and international cooperations that informed Soviet state responses to the Chernobyl disaster and how they produced an image of control over unpredictable and largely unassessed circumstances of risk. More specifically, it investigates the relationship between individual suffering caused by the Chernobyl accident and the technical measures and scales of expertise used to assess radiation-related biological injury in Ukraine. To this end, the chapter considers the work of international scientific networks in patterning initial Soviet remediation strategies and public health responses. It highlights key aspects of the initial Soviet management of the Chernobyl disaster and shows how ambiguities related to the interpretation of radiation-related physical damage subjected post-Chernobyl state interventions and medical surveillance to a variety of competing scientific and political interests. It also considers the so-called Safe Living Concept regarding radiation dose exposure and Soviet-American bioscientific collaboration report on radioactive fallout.
Adriana Petryna
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691151663
- eISBN:
- 9781400845095
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691151663.003.0004
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter examines the “epidemic” of disability in post-Soviet Ukraine, and more specifically how state laws on the social protection of Chernobyl sufferers have turned suffering and disability ...
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This chapter examines the “epidemic” of disability in post-Soviet Ukraine, and more specifically how state laws on the social protection of Chernobyl sufferers have turned suffering and disability into a resource affecting family, work, and social identity. It shows how the line between sickness and health becomes a highly politicized one as traditional forms of Soviet social organization, particularly the labor collective, are being replaced by a new architecture of welfare claims, privileges, laws, and identities. It also discusses the role of the Exclusion Zone in an informal Soviet economy and capitalist transition, as well as the ways in which workers micromanage inflation with a sick role sociality in their everyday lives. Finally, it considers the establishment of medical-labor committees to handle the growing number of disability claims related to the Chernobyl explosion and highlights a city of sufferers where so many individuals have gained their illnesses for life.Less
This chapter examines the “epidemic” of disability in post-Soviet Ukraine, and more specifically how state laws on the social protection of Chernobyl sufferers have turned suffering and disability into a resource affecting family, work, and social identity. It shows how the line between sickness and health becomes a highly politicized one as traditional forms of Soviet social organization, particularly the labor collective, are being replaced by a new architecture of welfare claims, privileges, laws, and identities. It also discusses the role of the Exclusion Zone in an informal Soviet economy and capitalist transition, as well as the ways in which workers micromanage inflation with a sick role sociality in their everyday lives. Finally, it considers the establishment of medical-labor committees to handle the growing number of disability claims related to the Chernobyl explosion and highlights a city of sufferers where so many individuals have gained their illnesses for life.
Adriana Petryna
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691151663
- eISBN:
- 9781400845095
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691151663.003.0005
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter examines the experiential and political aspects of biological citizenship in post-Soviet Ukraine, with particular emphasis on the relationship between an emerging medical classification ...
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This chapter examines the experiential and political aspects of biological citizenship in post-Soviet Ukraine, with particular emphasis on the relationship between an emerging medical classification of the ill effects of the Chernobyl disaster and the social process of distribution of disability entitlements. Drawing on the experiences of three sufferers, the chapter considers the kind of experiences and social initiatives that have emerged between state medical classification and the redistribution of social welfare goods. It also explores the importance that Soviet administrators placed on the environment as a political tool to “normalize” catastrophe, and how that normalized environment influenced life stories and medical case histories. Finally, it discusses the ways that law, medicine, and corruption intersected with respect to the processing of disability claims.Less
This chapter examines the experiential and political aspects of biological citizenship in post-Soviet Ukraine, with particular emphasis on the relationship between an emerging medical classification of the ill effects of the Chernobyl disaster and the social process of distribution of disability entitlements. Drawing on the experiences of three sufferers, the chapter considers the kind of experiences and social initiatives that have emerged between state medical classification and the redistribution of social welfare goods. It also explores the importance that Soviet administrators placed on the environment as a political tool to “normalize” catastrophe, and how that normalized environment influenced life stories and medical case histories. Finally, it discusses the ways that law, medicine, and corruption intersected with respect to the processing of disability claims.
Adriana Petryna
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691151663
- eISBN:
- 9781400845095
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691151663.003.0006
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter examines the ethical positions of local scientists and clinicians from the perspective of Soviet and post-Soviet scientific trajectories as well as in relation to international ...
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This chapter examines the ethical positions of local scientists and clinicians from the perspective of Soviet and post-Soviet scientific trajectories as well as in relation to international scientific influences. More specifically, it considers how the radiation research process makes connections between ailments and the Chernobyl disaster real—that is, organic. It also explores how scientific and political pressures at the international level restrict local discourses on the health effects of radiation from the Chernobyl disaster and influence the processes through which the biology of such effects becomes an object of contested scientific understanding and research. Finally, it shows how patients become captives of a new sociality in Ukraine and describes the changing doctor–patient relations, along with the in utero research carried out, at the Radiation Research Center.Less
This chapter examines the ethical positions of local scientists and clinicians from the perspective of Soviet and post-Soviet scientific trajectories as well as in relation to international scientific influences. More specifically, it considers how the radiation research process makes connections between ailments and the Chernobyl disaster real—that is, organic. It also explores how scientific and political pressures at the international level restrict local discourses on the health effects of radiation from the Chernobyl disaster and influence the processes through which the biology of such effects becomes an object of contested scientific understanding and research. Finally, it shows how patients become captives of a new sociality in Ukraine and describes the changing doctor–patient relations, along with the in utero research carried out, at the Radiation Research Center.
Adriana Petryna
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691151663
- eISBN:
- 9781400845095
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691151663.003.0007
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter examines how the self and social identity have been transformed in post-Soviet Ukraine within the legal and medical context of claiming illness from radiation dose exposure. It shows how ...
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This chapter examines how the self and social identity have been transformed in post-Soviet Ukraine within the legal and medical context of claiming illness from radiation dose exposure. It shows how the political and bureaucratic aspects of Chernobyl pervaded sufferers' lives, bringing to the fore the complexity of life's disruption by unstable parental and marital relations, unpredictable physical symptoms and emotional stress, patterns of hospitalization, unemployment, and bureaucratic transactions. The chapter tells the story of an elderly couple, using the concept of lichnost', or personhood, to shed light on some of the social and personal dynamics that influenced their life. It explains how the husband's pains, truths, instincts, and acts became key components in realization of his biological citizenship. It also considers how the deep intrusion of illness into personal lives fostered a type of violence that went beyond the line of what could be policed.Less
This chapter examines how the self and social identity have been transformed in post-Soviet Ukraine within the legal and medical context of claiming illness from radiation dose exposure. It shows how the political and bureaucratic aspects of Chernobyl pervaded sufferers' lives, bringing to the fore the complexity of life's disruption by unstable parental and marital relations, unpredictable physical symptoms and emotional stress, patterns of hospitalization, unemployment, and bureaucratic transactions. The chapter tells the story of an elderly couple, using the concept of lichnost', or personhood, to shed light on some of the social and personal dynamics that influenced their life. It explains how the husband's pains, truths, instincts, and acts became key components in realization of his biological citizenship. It also considers how the deep intrusion of illness into personal lives fostered a type of violence that went beyond the line of what could be policed.
Ursula K. Heise
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195335637
- eISBN:
- 9780199869022
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195335637.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter, building on Chs. 4 and 5, focuses on two German novels about the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, Christa Wolf’s Accident: A Day’s News and Gabriele Wohmann’s Sound of the Flute. Both ...
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This chapter, building on Chs. 4 and 5, focuses on two German novels about the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, Christa Wolf’s Accident: A Day’s News and Gabriele Wohmann’s Sound of the Flute. Both texts portray this transnational risk scenario in its impact on the local, ordinary lives of protagonists in East Germany and West Germany, respectively. Wolf emphasizes the way in which transnational technological risk of the kind instantiated by Chernobyl transcends disrupts and alters the experience of the local, which cannot offer adequate linguistic and cultural resources to imagine and describe this kind of hazard. Modernist literary innovations, in Wolf’s approach, become a way of bridging this gap. Wohmann, by contrast, emphasizes how even the most dangerous and large-scale risk scenarios are gradually integrated into the texture of everyday language and experience, challenging established modes of inhabitation but also giving rise to new ones. The chapter concludes with a brief summary of how Chernobyl itself has been normalized by becoming a popular tourist destination.Less
This chapter, building on Chs. 4 and 5, focuses on two German novels about the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, Christa Wolf’s Accident: A Day’s News and Gabriele Wohmann’s Sound of the Flute. Both texts portray this transnational risk scenario in its impact on the local, ordinary lives of protagonists in East Germany and West Germany, respectively. Wolf emphasizes the way in which transnational technological risk of the kind instantiated by Chernobyl transcends disrupts and alters the experience of the local, which cannot offer adequate linguistic and cultural resources to imagine and describe this kind of hazard. Modernist literary innovations, in Wolf’s approach, become a way of bridging this gap. Wohmann, by contrast, emphasizes how even the most dangerous and large-scale risk scenarios are gradually integrated into the texture of everyday language and experience, challenging established modes of inhabitation but also giving rise to new ones. The chapter concludes with a brief summary of how Chernobyl itself has been normalized by becoming a popular tourist destination.
Peter Cusack
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780719085055
- eISBN:
- 9781526109958
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719085055.003.0011
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
Sounds from Dangerous Places is a long-term, multi-sited project to explore the soundscapes of sites of major environmental damage. This composition takes the form of a poetic reverie about the human ...
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Sounds from Dangerous Places is a long-term, multi-sited project to explore the soundscapes of sites of major environmental damage. This composition takes the form of a poetic reverie about the human and environmental legacies of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which is played out resonantly at a multi-species level as well as through voice and song. It asks the questions: ‘What can we learn of dangerous places by listening to their sounds?’ and ‘What insights can sound offer into the relationship between the environment and the social and political contexts of a ‘dangerous place’?Less
Sounds from Dangerous Places is a long-term, multi-sited project to explore the soundscapes of sites of major environmental damage. This composition takes the form of a poetic reverie about the human and environmental legacies of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which is played out resonantly at a multi-species level as well as through voice and song. It asks the questions: ‘What can we learn of dangerous places by listening to their sounds?’ and ‘What insights can sound offer into the relationship between the environment and the social and political contexts of a ‘dangerous place’?
John M. Kirk
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813061054
- eISBN:
- 9780813051338
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813061054.003.0011
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Latin American Studies
In 1986 a major meltdown occurred at a nuclear reactor in Chernobyl, in the Ukraine. The impact on health was disastrous, and hundreds of thousands of people were affected. Cuba responded by offering ...
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In 1986 a major meltdown occurred at a nuclear reactor in Chernobyl, in the Ukraine. The impact on health was disastrous, and hundreds of thousands of people were affected. Cuba responded by offering to treat child victims of the nuclear explosion at a camp outside Havana, in Tarará. In all some 25,000 people came to Cuba for medical treatment. This chapter analyzes the nature of the medical treatment provided (at no charge) to the children. It also assesses the reasons for the Cuban government to undertake this mission at a time when its economy was crumbling.Less
In 1986 a major meltdown occurred at a nuclear reactor in Chernobyl, in the Ukraine. The impact on health was disastrous, and hundreds of thousands of people were affected. Cuba responded by offering to treat child victims of the nuclear explosion at a camp outside Havana, in Tarará. In all some 25,000 people came to Cuba for medical treatment. This chapter analyzes the nature of the medical treatment provided (at no charge) to the children. It also assesses the reasons for the Cuban government to undertake this mission at a time when its economy was crumbling.
Jean-Luc Nancy
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780823263387
- eISBN:
- 9780823266333
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823263387.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter starts with a question which contains a play on words: Civilization of the irremediable or an irremediable civilization? Freud then comes into the picture with terms he used more or less ...
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This chapter starts with a question which contains a play on words: Civilization of the irremediable or an irremediable civilization? Freud then comes into the picture with terms he used more or less in what he describes as nearing malaise or discontent. Though the energy of the atom had not yet been discovered in 1929, Freud augured that humanity will destroy itself as it is able to overcome nature in so many ways. Camus would have described Hiroshima as the brutal suicidal act of civilization. Maybe, what is meant is not civilization in its entirety since the atom has many non-military uses. But Nishitani could only describe the utilization of the atom as a “war without enemy,” because it is a war against humanity. This is exemplified after Hiroshima by Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and then Fukushima. What can happen next is an apocalypse or revelation and unveiling. But, more probably a satori or awakening to nothingness and with no understanding is what will follow.Less
This chapter starts with a question which contains a play on words: Civilization of the irremediable or an irremediable civilization? Freud then comes into the picture with terms he used more or less in what he describes as nearing malaise or discontent. Though the energy of the atom had not yet been discovered in 1929, Freud augured that humanity will destroy itself as it is able to overcome nature in so many ways. Camus would have described Hiroshima as the brutal suicidal act of civilization. Maybe, what is meant is not civilization in its entirety since the atom has many non-military uses. But Nishitani could only describe the utilization of the atom as a “war without enemy,” because it is a war against humanity. This is exemplified after Hiroshima by Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and then Fukushima. What can happen next is an apocalypse or revelation and unveiling. But, more probably a satori or awakening to nothingness and with no understanding is what will follow.
Adriana Petryna
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195374643
- eISBN:
- 9780199865390
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195374643.003.0023
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
This chapter examines the social and political impact of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor explosion from the perspective of radiation monitoring, clinical practices of radiation medicine, and ...
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This chapter examines the social and political impact of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor explosion from the perspective of radiation monitoring, clinical practices of radiation medicine, and compensation strategies. The experiences of workers of the contaminated zone and their transit through scientific research centers, public health bureaucracies, and activist organizations are documented. Together, these institutions mediate an informal economy of illness and claims to “biological citizenship”—a massive demand for, but selective access to, a form of social welfare based on scientific and legal criteria that both acknowledges injury and compensates for it. In the effort to map environmental contamination, to measure individual and population-wide exposures, and to arbitrate claims of illness, public health policies have recast the Chernobyl aftermath as a complex political and technical experience, with its own bureaucratic and legal contours which contributes to an increase of illness claims and social suffering.Less
This chapter examines the social and political impact of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor explosion from the perspective of radiation monitoring, clinical practices of radiation medicine, and compensation strategies. The experiences of workers of the contaminated zone and their transit through scientific research centers, public health bureaucracies, and activist organizations are documented. Together, these institutions mediate an informal economy of illness and claims to “biological citizenship”—a massive demand for, but selective access to, a form of social welfare based on scientific and legal criteria that both acknowledges injury and compensates for it. In the effort to map environmental contamination, to measure individual and population-wide exposures, and to arbitrate claims of illness, public health policies have recast the Chernobyl aftermath as a complex political and technical experience, with its own bureaucratic and legal contours which contributes to an increase of illness claims and social suffering.
Moore Colleen F.
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195153910
- eISBN:
- 9780199846986
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195153910.003.0007
- Subject:
- Psychology, Health Psychology
This chapter examines crises and disasters that resulted from environmental pollution. It deals with pollution related to radioactivity and chemical wastes. In each of the pollution crises, people ...
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This chapter examines crises and disasters that resulted from environmental pollution. It deals with pollution related to radioactivity and chemical wastes. In each of the pollution crises, people evacuated their homes temporarily or permanently, voluntarily or by force, but only after a lengthy exposure to the hazard. It describes key examples of these types of environmental pollution disasters, which include the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster in Ukraine, the Nevada Test Site, and the Love Canal in New York. This chapter provides tips for preventing disasters and crises from environmental pollution.Less
This chapter examines crises and disasters that resulted from environmental pollution. It deals with pollution related to radioactivity and chemical wastes. In each of the pollution crises, people evacuated their homes temporarily or permanently, voluntarily or by force, but only after a lengthy exposure to the hazard. It describes key examples of these types of environmental pollution disasters, which include the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster in Ukraine, the Nevada Test Site, and the Love Canal in New York. This chapter provides tips for preventing disasters and crises from environmental pollution.
David B. Morris
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520208698
- eISBN:
- 9780520926240
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520208698.003.0004
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
On 26 April 1986, in the Ukrainian town of Chernobyl, reactor number four in an aging and poorly designed nuclear power plant blew up. Fire in the graphite moderators produced radioactive gases and ...
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On 26 April 1986, in the Ukrainian town of Chernobyl, reactor number four in an aging and poorly designed nuclear power plant blew up. Fire in the graphite moderators produced radioactive gases and aerosols that over the next ten days contaminated thirty-five hundred square miles. Illness today is often environmental illness. In recognizing the connections between illness and the environment reshaped by human enterprise, people can begin to recover something of the biocultural heritage that modernist medicine has mostly rejected or ignored in pursuing a science focused on the interior of the body. Medicine is still slow to recognize and to address the complicated environmental sources of contemporary illness. The wider, even global contexts of environmental damage and its links to public health have not found a place within biomedical curricula that focus attention on internal organs and on bodily systems.Less
On 26 April 1986, in the Ukrainian town of Chernobyl, reactor number four in an aging and poorly designed nuclear power plant blew up. Fire in the graphite moderators produced radioactive gases and aerosols that over the next ten days contaminated thirty-five hundred square miles. Illness today is often environmental illness. In recognizing the connections between illness and the environment reshaped by human enterprise, people can begin to recover something of the biocultural heritage that modernist medicine has mostly rejected or ignored in pursuing a science focused on the interior of the body. Medicine is still slow to recognize and to address the complicated environmental sources of contemporary illness. The wider, even global contexts of environmental damage and its links to public health have not found a place within biomedical curricula that focus attention on internal organs and on bodily systems.
J. Samuel Walker
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520223288
- eISBN:
- 9780520924840
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520223288.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
In estimating the dangers of radiation to large population groups, the survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will be the most important basis. It supplied the best available ...
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In estimating the dangers of radiation to large population groups, the survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will be the most important basis. It supplied the best available epidemiological data on the effects of radiation on humans. Epidemiological studies of persons exposed to radiation in their jobs or in medical treatments were even more inconclusive. For further explanation about the radiation effects, there is a series of investigations in areas near Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and other nuclear plants, and a variety of other epidemiological analyses of radiation hazards did not produce clear results. The Three Mile Island accident created enormous public fear that it would cause a heavy toll in cancer deaths in the areas around the plant.Less
In estimating the dangers of radiation to large population groups, the survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will be the most important basis. It supplied the best available epidemiological data on the effects of radiation on humans. Epidemiological studies of persons exposed to radiation in their jobs or in medical treatments were even more inconclusive. For further explanation about the radiation effects, there is a series of investigations in areas near Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and other nuclear plants, and a variety of other epidemiological analyses of radiation hazards did not produce clear results. The Three Mile Island accident created enormous public fear that it would cause a heavy toll in cancer deaths in the areas around the plant.
Philip N. Johnson-Laird
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199551330
- eISBN:
- 9780191701580
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199551330.003.0021
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology
This chapter illustrates how theory can be used to solve puzzles of if. The answer to the puzzle lies in the fact that if has diverse interpretations which are the result of the interaction of ...
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This chapter illustrates how theory can be used to solve puzzles of if. The answer to the puzzle lies in the fact that if has diverse interpretations which are the result of the interaction of several simple components in its interpretation. These components also occur in different combinations in the interpretation of other connectives. Once the meaning of if has been pinned down in this way, a straightforward account of reasoning emerges and this is used to explain why the Chernobyl inference is difficult. The chapter specifically discusses these components, and it sketches some alternative accounts to throw them into relief. The chapter also reviews evidence that helps to clarify the theory. The solutions to the puzzles of conditionals depend on three essential points: a conditional is understood as referring to a set of possibilities, but all of the possibilities is rarely considered; a conditional often elicits temporal, spatial, or other sorts of relationships between the situation described in its if-clause and the situation described in its then-clause; and the logical interpretation of a conditional can occur, and modulation can even make some of its paradoxical consequences more plausible.Less
This chapter illustrates how theory can be used to solve puzzles of if. The answer to the puzzle lies in the fact that if has diverse interpretations which are the result of the interaction of several simple components in its interpretation. These components also occur in different combinations in the interpretation of other connectives. Once the meaning of if has been pinned down in this way, a straightforward account of reasoning emerges and this is used to explain why the Chernobyl inference is difficult. The chapter specifically discusses these components, and it sketches some alternative accounts to throw them into relief. The chapter also reviews evidence that helps to clarify the theory. The solutions to the puzzles of conditionals depend on three essential points: a conditional is understood as referring to a set of possibilities, but all of the possibilities is rarely considered; a conditional often elicits temporal, spatial, or other sorts of relationships between the situation described in its if-clause and the situation described in its then-clause; and the logical interpretation of a conditional can occur, and modulation can even make some of its paradoxical consequences more plausible.
Olga Kuchinskaya
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780262027694
- eISBN:
- 9780262325417
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262027694.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Science, Technology and Environment
Before Fukushima, the most notorious large-scale nuclear accident the world had seen was Chernobyl in 1986. The fallout from Chernobyl covered vast areas in the Northern Hemisphere, especially in ...
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Before Fukushima, the most notorious large-scale nuclear accident the world had seen was Chernobyl in 1986. The fallout from Chernobyl covered vast areas in the Northern Hemisphere, especially in Europe. Belarus, at the time a Soviet republic, suffered heavily: nearly a quarter of its territory was covered with long-lasting radionuclides. Yet the damage from the massive fallout was largely imperceptible; contaminated communities looked exactly like non-contaminated ones. It could only be known through constructed representations of it. The book explores how we know what we know about Chernobyl, describing how the consequences of a nuclear accident were made invisible. The analysis sheds valuable light on how we deal with other modern hazards—toxins or global warming—that are largely imperceptible to the human senses. The book describes the production of invisibility of Chernobyl’s consequences in Belarus—practices that limit public attention to radiation and make its health effects impossible to observe. Just as mitigating radiological contamination requires infrastructural solutions, the production of invisibility also involves infrastructural efforts, from categorical work of redefining the scope and nature of the accident’s consequences to reshaping infrastructures for research and radiation protection. The book finds historical fluctuations in recognition, tracing varyingly successful efforts to conceal or reveal Chernobyl’s consequences at different levels—among affected populations, scientists, government, media, and international organizations. The production of invisibility, the book argues, is a function of power relations.Less
Before Fukushima, the most notorious large-scale nuclear accident the world had seen was Chernobyl in 1986. The fallout from Chernobyl covered vast areas in the Northern Hemisphere, especially in Europe. Belarus, at the time a Soviet republic, suffered heavily: nearly a quarter of its territory was covered with long-lasting radionuclides. Yet the damage from the massive fallout was largely imperceptible; contaminated communities looked exactly like non-contaminated ones. It could only be known through constructed representations of it. The book explores how we know what we know about Chernobyl, describing how the consequences of a nuclear accident were made invisible. The analysis sheds valuable light on how we deal with other modern hazards—toxins or global warming—that are largely imperceptible to the human senses. The book describes the production of invisibility of Chernobyl’s consequences in Belarus—practices that limit public attention to radiation and make its health effects impossible to observe. Just as mitigating radiological contamination requires infrastructural solutions, the production of invisibility also involves infrastructural efforts, from categorical work of redefining the scope and nature of the accident’s consequences to reshaping infrastructures for research and radiation protection. The book finds historical fluctuations in recognition, tracing varyingly successful efforts to conceal or reveal Chernobyl’s consequences at different levels—among affected populations, scientists, government, media, and international organizations. The production of invisibility, the book argues, is a function of power relations.
