scholarly journals Resilience in Fukushima: Contribution to a Political Economy of Consent

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (2-4) ◽  
pp. 94-118
Author(s):  
Thierry Ribault

This article is a contribution to the political economy of consent based on the analysis of speeches, declarations, initiatives, and policies implemented in the name of resilience in the context of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. It argues that, in practice as much as in theory, resilience fuels peoples’ submission to an existing reality—in the case of Fukushima, the submission to radioactive contamination—in an attempt to deny this reality as well as its consequences. The political economy of consent to the nuclear, of which resilience is one of the technologies, can be grasped at four interrelated analytical levels adapted to understanding how resilience is encoded in key texts and programs in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi accident. The first level is technological: consent through and to the nuclear technology. The second level is sociometabolic: consent to nuisance. The third level is political: consent to participation. The fourth level is epistemological: consent to ignorance. A fifth cognitivo-experimental transversal level can also be identified: consent to experimentation, learning and training. We first analyze two key symptoms of the despotism of resilience: its incantatory feature and the way it supports mutilated life within a contaminated area and turns disaster into a cure. Then, we show how, in the reenchanted world of resilience, loss opens doors, that is, it paves the way to new “forms of life”: first through ignorance-based disempowerment; second through submission to protection. Finally, we examine the ideological mechanisms of resilience and how it fosters a government through the fear of fear. We approach resilience as a technology of consent mobilizing emotionalism and conditioning on one side, contingency and equivalence on the other.

2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takashi Nagata ◽  
Yoshinari Kimura ◽  
Masami Ishii

AbstractThe Great East Japan Earthquake occurred on March 11, 2011. In the first 10 days after the event, information about radiation risks from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was unavailable, and the disaster response, including deployment of disaster teams, was delayed. Beginning on March 17, 2011, the Japan Medical Association used a geographic information system (GIS) to visualize the risk of radiation exposure in Fukushima. This information facilitated the decision to deploy disaster medical response teams on March 18, 2011.Nagata T, Kimura Y, Ishii M. Use of a geographic information system (GIS) in the medical response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2012;27(2):1-3.


Phronesis ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marguerite Deslauriers

AbstractThis paper considers the distinctions Aristotle draws (1) between the intellectual virtue of phronêsis and the moral virtues and (2) among the moral virtues, in light of his commitment to the reciprocity of the virtues. I argue that Aristotle takes the intellectual virtues to be numerically distinct hexeis from the moral virtues. By contrast, I argue, he treats the moral virtues as numerically one hexis, although he allows that they are many hexeis 'in being'. The paper has three parts. In the first, I set out Aristotle's account of the structure of the faculties of the soul, and determine that desire is a distinct faculty. The rationality of a desire is not then a question of whether or not the faculty that produces that desire is rational, but rather a question of whether or not the object of the desire is good. In the second section I show that the reciprocity of phronêsis and the moral virtues requires this structure of the faculties. In the third section I show that the way in which Aristotle distinguishes the faculties requires that we individuate moral virtues according to the objects of the desires that enter into a given virtue, and with reference to the circumstances in which these desires are generated. I then explore what it might mean for the moral virtues to be different in being but not in number, given the way in which the moral virtues are individuated. I argue that Aristotle takes phronêsis and the political art to be a numerical unity in a particular way, and that he suggests that the moral virtues are, by analogy, the same kind of unity.


2009 ◽  
Vol 53 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 290-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Masters Masters*

AbstractThe return of Ottoman rule to Aleppo in 1840 corresponded with the inauguration of the reform era (1839-76). Although the central Ottoman state could not have foreseen the outcome, these political reforms undermined its economic sovereignty in two key areas. The Ottoman land reform law of 1858 and schemes to settle the Bedouin in northern Syria enabled Aleppo’s political elite to scramble for the steppe lands of the Euphrates valley and ultimately paved the way for European capitalists to exploit the agricultural resources of the region. Additionally, attempts to control the abuses of the capitulatory system provoked a marked decline in the relative fortunes of the city’s traditional commercial elite, with much of the internal regional trade shifting into the hands of European merchants.Le retour des Ottomans à Alep en 1840 correspond au début de la période de réformes (1839-1876). Bien que l’état central ottoman n’eût pas pu prévoir leurs conséquences, ces réformes politiques ont miné sa souveraineté économique dans deux régions clé. Le code foncier ottomane de 1858 et les projets visant à la sédentarisation des Bédouins dans la Syrie du Nord ont permis à l’élite politique d’Alep une ruée vers les steppes de la vallée de l’Euphrate et ont fini par préparer le chemin aux capitalistes européens qui sont venus exploiter les ressources agricoles de la région. En outre, les tentatives d’obtenir le contrôle des abus du système capitulaire ont provoqué le déclin marqué des fortunes concernées de l’élite commerciale traditionnelle car une grande partie du commerce intérieure régio-nale tombait dans les mains des négociants européens.


2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-244
Author(s):  
Nancy Hawker

Abstract‘Arabrew’ denotes a mixture of the languages that index two nations known for their seemingly intractable conflict. It is supposedly spoken by Palestinians and other Arabs who are citizens of Israel. Evidence from the field gathered in 2015 shows some codeswitching, especially inter-sentential, and borrowing, mostly of nouns for specialist terminology, and of a few discourse markers. This does not support the claim that a new variety has emerged, yet the debate around it channels concerns about nonlinguistic issues relating to the political economy of Israel and to anxieties about Israeli-Palestinian relations. This debate invokes ideologies, including language ideologies, of nationalism, colonialism, liberalism, and more, that are identifiably linked to the historical and material contexts. The study uses critical discourse analysis and contact linguistics to outline the articulation between distinctions of national identity, socioeconomic class, the way people speak, and the way this speech is ideologically received. (Arabic, Hebrew, codeswitching, ideology)*


1979 ◽  
Vol 145 (2) ◽  
pp. 328
Author(s):  
Michael Morgan ◽  
Bryan Roberts

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