Article ID: CBB927868763

Citizen Science in Post-Fukushima Japan: The Gendered Scientization of Radiation Measurement (2019)

unapi

After the Fukushima nuclear accident, many laywomen established citizen radiation measuring organizations (CRMOs) to measure the concentration of radioactive materials in food to ensure its safety. These women had diverse motivations. As caretakers, many wanted to protect their families. Others saw it as important to arm themselves with science when the broader social discourse portrayed contamination concerns as irrational and harmful to food producers, and stereotyped women as overreacting due to their scientific illiteracy. Some women also became empowered and productive citizen scientists, influenced by the popular idea of women-in-science. The fluid relationships between scientization and citizens’ collective mobilizations make it particularly illuminating to analyze such shifting relationships between activism and science using Gieryn’s concept of boundary-work. Women’s motivations to participate in CRMOs were closely connected to the expanding scientization—the increasing role of science in defining and prescribing social problems. While they shared many sentiments with anti-nuclear movements, women often performed boundary-work in a way that constructed science as irreconcilable with activism. Many saw activism as threatening the legitimation provided by science: a particularly important issue for women, who were stereotyped and policed as anti-science and irrational after the accident. Activism was also understood as a highly masculinized space incompatible with the feminized caretaker role that many women took on, which initially provided the rationale for their involvement in citizen science. The concept of gendered scientization highlights how the turn to science in dealing with environmental threats might result in gendered opportunities and challenges in collective mobilization by citizens.

...More
Included in

Article Logan D. A. Williams; Sharlissa Moore (2019) Guest Editorial: Conceptualizing Justice and Counter-Expertise. Science as Culture (pp. 251-276). unapi

Associated with

Article Gloria Baigorrotegui (2019) Making Justice for Counter-Expertise and Doing Counter-Expertise for Justice. Science as Culture (pp. 375-382). unapi

Article Kelly Moore; Nathalia Hernández Vidal; Daniel Lee Kleinman (2019) Knowledge and Justice: A Comment. Science as Culture (pp. 383-390). unapi

Article Oluwatoyin Dare Kolawole (2019) Science, Social Scientisation and Hybridisation of Knowledges. Science as Culture (pp. 391-401). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB927868763/

Similar Citations

Article Michelle Riedlinger; Jaclyn Rea; (July 2015)
Discourse Ecology and Knowledge Niches Negotiating the Risks of Radiation in Online Canadian Forums, Post-Fukushima (/isis/citation/CBB039967740/)

Article Sahm, Astrid; (2013)
Atomenergie in Ost- und Westeuropa: Reaktionen auf Tschernobyl und Fukushima (/isis/citation/CBB001200600/)

Article Pritchard, Sara B.; (2012)
An envirotechnical disaster: Nature, technology, and politics at Fukushima (/isis/citation/CBB001181765/)

Book Yuko Fujigaki; (2015)
Lessons From Fukushima: Japanese Case Studies on Science, Technology and Society (/isis/citation/CBB681578186/)

Article Pidgeon, Nick; (Fall 2012)
Complex Organizational Failures: Culture, High Reliability, and the Lessons from Fukushima (/isis/citation/CBB916340240/)

Article Sugiman, Toshio; (2014)
Lessons Learned from the 2011 Debacle of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant (/isis/citation/CBB001420061/)

Article Shi Lin Loh; Sulfikar Amir; (June 2019)
Healing Fukushima: Radiation hazards and disaster medicine in post-3.11 Japan (/isis/citation/CBB754363980/)

Article Amir, Sulfikar; Juraku, Kohta; (2014)
Undermining Disaster: Engineering and Epistemological Bias in the Fukushima Nuclear Crisis (/isis/citation/CBB001550641/)

Book Aya H. Kimura; Abby Kinchy; (2019)
Science by the People: Participation, Power, and the Politics of Environmental Knowledge (/isis/citation/CBB605020733/)

Article Amir, Sulfikar; Loh, Shi Lin; (June 2019)
Film Review Forum: Response to Michael M. J. Fischer's Review of Healing Fukushima, Part 1 (/isis/citation/CBB807003347/)

Article Aya H. Kimura; (2018)
Fukushima ETHOS: Post-Disaster Risk Communication, Affect, and Shifting Risks (/isis/citation/CBB475939892/)

Article Akera, Atsushi; Mohsin, Anto; (2014)
Finding a Place for Engineering Studies in Disaster STS? Creating the STS Forum on the 2011 East Japan Disaster (/isis/citation/CBB532871451/)

Article Fu, Daiwie; (2011)
Introduction: An East Asian STS Panel Discussion on Japan's 3/11 and Fukushima Crises (/isis/citation/CBB001231675/)

Book Russell, Sharman Apt; (2014)
Diary of a citizen scientist: chasing tiger beetles and other new ways of engaging the world (/isis/citation/CBB847001615/)

Authors & Contributors
Kimura, Aya Hirata
Amir, Sulfikar
Loh, Shi-Lin
Subodhana Wijeyeratne
Rea, Jaclyn
Riedlinger, Michelle
Concepts
Fukushima disaster
Disasters; catastrophes
Citizen science; community science
Technoscience; science and technology studies
Political activists and activism
Radiation
Time Periods
21st century
20th century, late
Places
Japan
East Asia
United States
Russia
China
Canada
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment