Cousins Elicia Mayuri
Education Development and Learning Support Center, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Beppu, Oita, Japan.
Gend Place Cult. 2024;31(7):932-953. doi: 10.1080/0966369x.2023.2229959. Epub 2023 Jun 29.
State governance after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident created a culture of silence and tolerance surrounding radiation risk, and deliberately fueled the popular understanding that acting upon radiation-related concern was antithetical to national and regional economic recovery. Outright denial of danger by Japanese leaders, paired with loosened safety standards and limited state support for affected residents by way of guidance and compensation, led to a privatization of radiation risk management that placed responsibility for exposure reduction onto families while also constraining their action. Drawing on in-depth interviews and participant observation, this article explores how such dynamics fell most heavily on concerned mothers, who were far more likely to take on this additional realm of domestic labor and care work due to deeply ingrained norms of gendered labor and citizenship. Yet such maternal labor was not lauded as a valuable social contribution. Rather, concerned mothers found themselves in a double bind in which to care for their families through vigilant avoidance of potential risk was to betray the state. Risk mitigation came to require a significant amount of emotion work associated with not appearing overly anxious or paranoid, constantly assessing the risk perception of others, and at times suppressing concern and compromising on risk tolerance. The results of this study suggest that neoliberal models of environmental risk management, particularly in moments of high uncertainty surrounding the risk in question, can not only create internal, interpersonal, and community conflict but also exacerbate existing gender inequalities.
福岛第一核电站事故后的国家治理营造了一种围绕辐射风险的沉默和容忍文化，并蓄意助长了民众的一种认知，即对与辐射相关的担忧采取行动不利于国家和地区的经济复苏。日本领导人公然否认危险，同时放宽安全标准，并在指导和补偿方面对受灾居民提供有限的国家支持，导致辐射风险管理私有化，将减少辐射暴露的责任推给家庭，同时也限制了他们的行动。本文通过深入访谈和参与观察，探讨了这种动态如何对忧心忡忡的母亲造成了最沉重的影响，由于性别化劳动和公民身份的根深蒂固规范，她们更有可能承担起这一额外的家务劳动和照料工作领域。然而，这种母亲的劳动并未被赞誉为有价值的社会贡献。相反，忧心忡忡的母亲们发现自己陷入了一种两难境地，即通过警惕地避免潜在风险来照顾家人却被视为背叛国家。风险缓解需要大量的情感劳动，包括不表现得过度焦虑或偏执、不断评估他人的风险认知，有时还要抑制担忧并在风险容忍度上做出妥协。这项研究的结果表明，新自由主义的环境风险管理模式，尤其是在围绕相关风险存在高度不确定性的情况下，不仅会引发内部、人际和社区冲突，还会加剧现有的性别不平等。
