Non-present Machines in the Moral Construction of Worry

• In Event: 256 - Section on Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis Paper Session. Current Studies in Conversation Analysis

Abstract

Five years after the Fukushima disaster, the nuclear power plant explosion caused by a series of tsunamis that followed the East Japan Great Earthquake in March 2011, some residents in Fukushima Prefecture or its adjacent areas still express their concern about the radioactive materials emitted by the explosion. To address this concern, several hospitals in Fukushima Prefecture offer to measure the content of radioactive materials in bodies with a device called a “whole body counter.” Drawing on the video-recordings of four discussion sessions held by one doctor with six examinees in total about the results of their whole body counter tests at a hospital in Fukushima Prefecture, I explore the ways in which a test and its results are mentioned and referenced as an orientation for a morally legitimate construction of worry. I argue, first, that the mentioning of the test and test results is indicative of the terminus of the ongoing account and, second, that the mentioning constitutes an arena for the morality of worry.

Author

• Aug Nishizaka, Chiba University