This conference, on the 25^th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, will look behind the different political and social processes that emerged in Eastern and Western Europe in the aftermath of the Soviet nuclear accident. We will ask whether or not Chernobyl has become the archetypal symbol of risk in the modern world, or if social and political developments in Eastern and Western Europe belie this claim. Perhaps we may question this assumption by arguing that the “anthropological shock” of Chernobyl was ultimately more powerful in Western Europe than in those Eastern European countries that were most directly affected by the disaster. Did the Chernobyl experience have a democratising impact on the societies, as some observers suggest, or did it create even more inequalities among citizens and therefore a greater potential for social and political movements and actions? Finally, the conference will discuss new perspectives in the research on disasters more generally, especially the potential perspectives that the growing field of environmental history may offer to our analyses of broader forces set in motion by disasters.

Registration deadline: 31.3.2011

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