Readings
Dorondel, Ș., Şerban, S., & Tudor, M. (2021). Ecological Restoration in
“Liquid Societies”: Lessons from Eastern Europe. Nature and Culture, 16(2), 86-117. https://doi.org/10.3167/nc.2020.160205.
Abstract: This article tells the story of possibly the first ecological restoration project in the postsocialist world (1994), which is an example of a broader set of ecological restorations carried out in Eastern Europe. By exploring the two intertwined processes of the ecological restoration of an island in the Danube Delta and the advancement of neoliberal economic ideas through land reform, decollectivization, and land privatization, we contribute to the understanding of ecological restoration in societies in turmoil. We engage a social sciences perspective in order to show the entanglement between ecological restoration processes and institutions, political arrangements, and various forms of land tenure. This theoretical perspective also shows a model all too often present in ecological restoration projects: a proclivity
for adopting a neoliberal approach toward administrating natural resources at the expense of local ecological knowledge and the local administration of natural resources.
Magdalena E. Stawkowski (2017) Radiophobia had to be reinvented, Culture, Theory and Critique, 58(4), 357-374. https://doi.org/10.1080/14735784.2017.1356740
Abstract: In recent years, the Institute of Radiation Safety and Ecology in Kazakhstan has proposed a plan to return large segments of the Soviet-era Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site to economic activity, notably farming and stock breeding. Despite fierce opposition to the plan, the Institute has framed these concerns as a case of ‘radiophobia’ or the irrational fear of radiation. In this article, I explore how a nexus of forces situates radiophobia as a mental health issue rooted in the irrational belief that radiation is harmful. Radiophobia is thus constructed as a mental disorder located inside the head of its victims rather than in the public domain. The deployment of radiophobia, therefore, illuminates a broader political and economic strategy in Kazakhstan that deprioritizes issues of public health and blocks the proper securitisation of a radioactive landscape.