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dc.contributor.advisorChesters, Graeme
dc.contributor.authorTamura, Azumi*
dc.date.accessioned2018-01-05T13:11:40Z
dc.date.available2018-01-05T13:11:40Z
dc.date.issued2015
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10454/14384
dc.description.abstractPolitical disillusionment is widespread in contemporary Japanese society, despite people’s struggles in the recession. Our social relationships become entangled, and we can no longer clearly identify our interest in politics. The search for the outside of stagnant reality sometimes leads marginalised young people to a disastrous imaginary for social change, such as war and death. The imaginary of disaster was actualised in March 2011. The huge earthquake and tsunami caused the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which triggered the largest wave of activism since the 1960s. Based on the author’s fieldwork on the post-Fukushima anti-nuclear movements in Tokyo, this thesis investigates how the disaster impacted people’s sense of agency and ethics, and ultimately explores the new political imaginary in postmodernity. The disaster revealed the interconnected nature of contemporary society. The thesis argues that their regret about their past indifference to politics motivated the protesters into social commitment without any totalising ideology or predetermined collective identity. They also found an ambiguity of the self, which is insufficient to know what should be done. Hence, they mobilise their bodies on to the streets, encountering others, and forcing themselves to feel and think. This is an ethical attitude, yet it simultaneously stems from the desire of each individual to make a difference to the self and society. The thesis concludes that the post-Fukushima anti-nuclear movements signify a new way of doing politics as endless experiments by collectively responding to an unexpected force from an outside in a creative way.en_US
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.rights<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />The University of Bradford theses are licenced under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Licence</a>.eng
dc.subjectFukushimaen_US
dc.subjectSocial movement
dc.subjectContemporary Japan
dc.subjectPostmodernity
dc.subjectPolitical apathy
dc.subjectIdentity
dc.subjectEmotion
dc.titleThe Politics of Disaster and Their Role in Imagining an Outside. Understanding the Rise of the Post-Fukushima Anti-Nuclear Movementsen_US
dc.type.qualificationleveldoctoralen_US
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Bradfordeng
dc.publisher.departmentFaculty of Social Sciencesen_US
dc.typeThesiseng
dc.type.qualificationnamePhDen_US
dc.date.awarded2015
refterms.dateFOA2018-07-28T02:03:38Z


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