Radiation and Borders: Chernobyl as a National and Transnational Site of Memory

Abstract

The public debate about the consequences of Chernobyl is of particular political relevance because each interpretation of the event also involves a judgment about the danger of low-level radiation exposure. Thus, statements about Chernobyl and its aftermath are also claims about what it should teach us about the nonmilitary use of nuclear energy. Commemorations of Chernobyl, such as those that occur on its anniversary, are therefore inherently political: the forms of language and the “facts” used to talk about it are an attempt to influence public perceptions about the risks connected with this type of electricity production. Furthermore, the narratives created by various participants in the Chernobyl debate demonstrate how different the perceptions of risk really are. This essay starts with an overview of the accident and its evaluation. It subsequently examines different forms of remembering Chernobyl, from both a national and transnational perspective. It discusses national and transnational carriers of memories such as literature and photography, and elaborates on the implications of the contesting narratives interpreting Chernobyl in “apocalyptic” versus “radiophobic” ways. Furthermore, the essay sheds light on the implications of Chernobyl as a national site of memory in Germany, France, and Belarus. The comparative perspective reveals the importance of underlying structures such as national (nuclear) politics, elite and expert culture, environmentalism, and the role of individual agency. These factors condition the emergence of a specific narrative of the accident within a specific discursive field, and, furthermore, determine the meaning attributed to “Chernobyl” in a given national context setting. The essay concludes with some reflections on the future of Chernobyl as a site of memory and the reshaping of the Chernobyl discourse through Fukushima.

Informality and survival in Ukraine's nuclear landscape: Living with the risks of Chernobyl

“…Whilst mostly explored by scholars from the hard or life sciences, Chernobyl has recently gained popularity in the social sciences across fields such as human geography (Davies, 2013(Davies, , 2015Rush-Cooper, 2013), anthropology (Petryna, 2002(Petryna, , 2011Phillips, 2005Phillips, , 2012, sociology (Kuchinskaya, 2011(Kuchinskaya, , 2012(Kuchinskaya, , 2014, history (Kalmbach, 2013), studies of tourism (Goatcher & Brunsden, 2011;Stone, 2013;Yankovska & Hannam, 2013), culture (Falkof, 2013), and visual studies (Bürkner, 2014). What these scholars share is the realisation that the Chernobyl disaster has multiple interpretations and realities, with contested impacts that stretch both within and beyond post-socialist space.…”

Informal Economies in Post-Socialist Spaces

“…The ongoing Chernobyl disaster has recently become the focus of scholarship in social science and humanities fields such as human geography (Davies, 2013(Davies, , 2015Rush-Cooper, 2013), sociology (Kuchinskaya, 2010(Kuchinskaya, , 2013(Kuchinskaya, , 2014Morris-Suzuki, 2014), history (Geist, 2015;Kalmbach, 2013;Marples, 2004;Schmid, 2015), area studies and anthropology (Arndt, 2012;Petryna, 2002Petryna, , 2011Phillips, 2005;Phillips and Ostaszewski, 2012), as well as visual studies (Bürkner, 2014), literature studies (Gerstenberger, 2014) and tourism (Stone, 2013;Yankovska and Hannam, 2014). These researchers share the realization that the Chernobyl accident has diverse understandings and multiple realities, with disputed impacts that extend well beyond its official nuclear geography and its enigmatic death toll.…”

Imaging protocols for the autopsy service in a time of pandemic emergency minimizing the contagion of SARS-CoV-2 expert government agents

“…The countless accidents and deaths surrounding irresponsible exposures were useful for the advancement of research on the effects of the interaction of radiation with matter. Even with all the progress, at the first moment, the exams were seen as manifestations of the supernatural Research, Society and Development, v. 10, n. 6, e28810615860, 2021 (CC BY 4.0) | ISSN 2525-3409 | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.33448/rsd-v10i6.15860 (Kalmbach, 2013).…”