Abstract
This chapter presents the background for the book. Our point of departure is a distinction between occurrences (contingent things that take place in the world) and events (discursive constructions that make sense of occurrences). This chapter opens the central trajectories that come together in our attempt to explain how the triple disaster on 11 March 2011 in Japan was made sense of. This chapter suggests that the meanings, affects and articulations are linked to four intersecting discussions, looking at the event (1) as a dramatic example of processing cultural trauma, (2) as a disruptive global media event that unfolds in (3) a new kind of hybrid media environment, and that carries with it the exceptional political and cultural tensions related to (4) nuclear politics.
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Notes
- 1.
See for instance the controversy over a project that installed art work in the closed, contaminated zone around the NPP: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2015/jul/20/fukushima-exclusion-zone-art-politics; https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/16/fukushimas-radioactive-wasteland-turns-into-art-gallery. In a more recent controversy, Fukushima residents have called for the removal of a statue that for them appears to represent an outsiders’ view on the disaster. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/13/fukushima-residents-complain-over-statue-of-boy-in-radiation-suit
- 2.
Shortly put: Is it acceptable to theoretically bracket out the moral ontological aspects of events (e.g. the ontological depth related to nuclear waste and contamination), and what is the politics of this kind of research. For a general introduction to and critique of Alexander’s work, see Joas and Knöbl (2010).
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Valaskivi, K., Rantasila, A., Tanaka, M., Kunelius, R. (2019). Introduction: Tracing the Meanings of Fukushima. In: Traces of Fukushima. Palgrave Pivot, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6864-6_1
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