Suchergebnisse

"Nuclear disasters and radiation accidents fuelled anti-nuclear activism worldwide. Yet their impacts on national energy policies vary considerably across countries. The German Government shut down half of the country's nuclear reactors immediately after the Fukushima disaster and plans to fully abandon nuclear power by 2022. Germany's exit from nuclear power has a long history which this chapter traces back to the mid-1970s. It is shown that the institutionalization of an exit-strategy within the party system and an all levels of government has been a prerequisite of the so called 'energy turn', for which Fukushima was only the trigger but not the cause. Applied to the Japanese case the German experience suggests that fundamental policy changes will be long in coming, despite surging protests and a widespread anti-nuclear sentiment following the Fukushima disaster." (author's abstract)

"As with previous disasters, the triple catastrophe of 2011 has diverse effects on the Japanese society. This article focuses on the colorful and carnival-like anti-nuclear protest actions that became visible one month after the earthquake. As will be shown, the protest marches differ from what is commonly understood to be political activism. These artful protests will be looked at from three different perspectives: The author will argue that a) no specific relationship to the anti-nuclear protest tradition in Japan exists, b) these protests are not simply explained as a consequence of inexperience in orthodox political action and c) that there might be much more at work than only a chance to celebrate a party on the streets. Over the past two decades, at least for some young and mostly well-educated citizens, the doors towards pre-determined life's paths have been closed and alternative life's paths undervalued. The article concludes that these changing political and social contexts have to be taken into account and invites the reader to think about tangible elements of multiple forms of political action." (author's abstract)