Social Fallout: Ukrainian Society and Geopolitics in the Shadow of Chornobyl

Abstract

Far from being a discrete historical event, the 1986 Chornobyl disaster is still happening. The radioactive particles released during the explosions in reactor 4 of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (ChNPP) continue to emit harmful radiation, individuals—known as “sufferers”—continue to deal with the bodily effects of that radiation, and various actors continue to keep the disaster politically alive through technoscientific, discursive, and sociomaterial processes. Though built and maintained by the Soviet Union, after the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, dealing with the Chornobyl disaster has largely been the responsibility of Ukraine and Ukrainians. This dissertation examines two cases where the production of scientific knowledge about the Chornobyl disaster and particular political agendas have co-constructed each other at two Ukrainian sites: the role of the Department of Social Expertise in the development of a post-Chornobyl biopolitical regime in Ukraine, and how residents of the city of Slavutych, the home of ChNPP workers and their families since 1988, deployed narratives of their experience and expertise regarding Chornobyl to engage in geopolitical projects. In both of these cases, the framework of critical knowledge production forms the analytical basis for examining the contextual processes of technoscientific knowledge production, reproduction, and representation in investigations of geographies of power relations and political action. Critical knowledge production serves also as a bridge for incorporating theory and method from science and technology studies (STS) into political geography work. This dissertation demonstrates the applicability and malleability of the critical knowledge production framework for arriving at explanations in geography.