Risk Communication after Fukushima Nuclear Accident: Affect and Shifting Risk

• In Event: 262 - Section on Science, Knowledge, and Technology Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 04.

Abstract

In a society where environmental contamination and pollution incidents abound, risk communication (RC) is increasingly important. Nowhere more than in Japan after Fukushima nuclear accident did seem to be in need of RC. This paper analyzes an example of RC called ETHOS Fukushima, organized by the International Commission on Radiological Protection and other international organizations supported by the Japanese government. ETHOS is of global importance as it has been hailed as a model RC in regards to nuclear power. It was created after Chernobyl accident and then is being exported to Fukushima. Drawing on theories of affect and biopower, the paper examines affect as the object-target in RC. The paper’s data is drawn from meeting summary reports, website posts, video clips, and mass media, as well as a collection of published exchanges (formulated as letters) between two key actors for ETHOS Fukushima (one female local citizen and a French economist who managed the original ETHOS and is involved in ETHOS Fukushima). The paper finds the main ETHOS's tropes in the narratives including self-responsibility, hope and anticipation, and cosmopolitan attachments. By situating ETHOS in a larger political landscape, the paper points out that such affective work is integral in shifting risks from the nuclear industry and the government to individual citizens. ETHOS's principles are in line with the RC literature; it is participatory, open dialogue and involves lay citizens. Yet its affective work helps to construct and reinforce a virtue of continued settlement rather than evacuation from the contaminated areas.

Author

• Aya Hirata Kimura, University of Hawaii-Manoa