This essay examines the memorialization of two pivotal nuclear catastrophes – the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945 and the Chornobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 – through the lens of testimonial writings and Maurice Blanchot’s concept of “the disaster.” Drawing on Japanese hibakusha testimonies and Chornobyl survivors’ accounts, the essay contrasts political memory, which seeks closure and national integration, with cultural memory, which preserves trauma, ambiguity, and unresolved loss. Testimonial writings, rather than commemorating a concluded past, emerge from within the disaster itself, articulating a reality that defies assimilation into redemptive historical narratives.

What is it like to visit the inside of a nuclear power plant? Based on autoethnographic observations at nuclear facilities in seven countries, this article suggests that we as visitors are subject to two parallel rituals: a meta-ritual of security, and a main ritual of performing the nuclear facility as safe. This is done, first, by designating the visitor as unknowing, second, by showcasing the nuclear facility as over-secured, and third, by creating relational trust in the plant staff's expertise. Given the high numbers of visitors to nuclear facilities worldwide and over decades, these visits are not a neutral activity but an arena where persuasive emotional registers are employed to affect individuals and, by extension, influence broader societal formations of nuclear politics.

Den här texten inbjuder till reflektion kring läsningen och användningen av slutnoter i Barbro Blehr's avhandling Lokala gemenskaper. En studie av en nordsvensk by på 1980-talet (1994). Fem kategorier av kunskap förmedlas via de sextio slutnoterna; "Fakta-tillägg", "Begreppsförklaringar", "Hänvisningar till andras studier", "Avhandlingsprocessen" och "Tolkningsmöjligheter". Slutnoterna fungerar som en parallell textuell värld som ger nyanser och djup till huvudtexten. Och trots att orienteringen mellan huvudtext och slutnoter ibland kan upplevas lite tungrodd, blir den lilla gäckande siffrans kallelse oemotståndlig och manar till lekfull interaktion med avhandlingsförfattaren.

The closing of the aging nuclear power plant of Fessenheim was eventually concretized in June 2020 after many years of controversy, reflecting the sensibility of closing nuclear power plants in France, the world's second largest producer of nuclear power. This paper provides insight into how this highly policy vexed issue was discussed on the local level during 2017, a period when the decision regarding the shutdown was still at stake. Here, I examine the discursive strategies mobilized by key actors lobbying for the shutdown or maintenance of the nuclear power plant to enhance their argumentations. Using political discourse analyses combined with the logics approach, the article shows that the argumentation of proponents and advocates of a shutdown is structured around the same concept of sustainability. However, economic growth, social prosperity, and environmental “cautiousness” are not articulated with the same chain of equivalence and do not activate the same fantasmatic logics. 

This article explores the EU free movers' experience of borders and describes how they experience borders as complicated and complex. Although some variation exists in terms of the place of the free movers in the labor market, the advantage gained by being a corporate transferee is easily lost when individuals cease to be useful to their employers. The ambivalence - which is highlighted in past literature and experienced by Estonian migrants in Sweden also - is exploited by employers who create and also negotiate borders when they feel the need to. The article concurs with the suggestion of Wagner (2015) that free mobility within the EU functions as a sieve - i.e., there is free mobility for services, but workers' rights are often disregarded. Furthermore, due to the complex nature of borders, EU free movers themselves are often either unaware of or confused about their legal status and their rights.