Tracing the Fallout: An Interdisciplinary Study of Technoscientific Practices and Media Ecologies in the Radiation Monitoring of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

Takahashi, Hayato (2024) Tracing the Fallout: An Interdisciplinary Study of Technoscientific Practices and Media Ecologies in the Radiation Monitoring of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster. Doctoral Thesis.

Abstract

This thesis examines citizen-scientific and institutional data generation and visualization of the radioactive contamination arising from the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident in 2011. Governmental and citizen science groups have used different technological methods and scientific standards to monitor and visualize the contamination in Japan. Based on the discussions of media studies, science and technology studies (STS), and philosophy of technology, an interdisciplinary analysis of the disaster is developed to question the social and technological relations, monitoring devices, and digital mapping of the disaster.

Chapter 1 develops an analysis of radiation monitoring in Japan after the disaster, drawing on theoretical frameworks such as civic epistemology and actor network theory. Subsequently, it also examines the contemporary ecological debates regarding the Anthropocene, nuclear studies, and Michel Serres's Natural Contract. Chapter 2 discusses media theories of media networks, digital archives, and interface designs to delineate the methodology of this thesis.

Thereafter, the thesis tackles questions through a series of case studies. Chapter 3 analyses the ways in which the post-2011 digital infrastructure has been related to the mobilization of social movements, the formation of monitoring projects, and the subjectivity of citizens in media ecology. Chapter 4 examines "monitoring devices" such as radiation detectors and spreadsheet software in the light of Gilbert Simondon's theory of individuation. Drawing on Simondonian relational ontology, the thesis will illustrate those monitoring devices within connected social, natural, and digital milieux. Chapter 5 investigates digital mapping initiatives of the 3.11 disaster. Relying on Deleuze and Whitehead’s discussions on time, space and extensity, this chapter will examine the way in which the radioactive contamination has been mapped on digital maps.

Through these discussions, this thesis analyses the significance of technoscientific practices in digital media in the figuration of the nuclear disaster.

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