An ethnography of U.S. nuclear waste policy, and how to understand contemporary societies’ attempts to establish “good” relations with the future.
Contemporary societies are often criticized for their incapacity to account for the long term. Nuclear Remains asks what happens when a society decides to think long term—examining the US efforts to hold present and distant futures together.
Focusing on the case of the US nuclear waste program, Başak Saraç-Lesavre argues that no temporal orientation is inherently ethical; what matters is how temporal orientations construed as desirable get translated into action.
To analyze how concerned actors seek to establish “good” relations between past, present, and future, Saraç-Lesavre introduces the problem of rendez-vous framework—tracing how temporal gaps are identified and resolutions formulated and inscribed in different forms of arrangements. Her multisited ethnographic research takes readers from Congressional debates over funding—to reconcile accountability to and immunity from politics—to Carlsbad, New Mexico, where local actors have been trying to keep their community attached to nuclear futures.
Over time, these arrangements face tests. They are barely ever considered au rendez-vous when meeting contemporary conditions, yet they produce significant effects: material, economic, political, and moral relations, and ultimately, societies themselves. This framework applies broadly to cases where temporal relations are at stake: climate change adaptation, government of commons, pension schemes, energy transition, and care systems.
ENDORSEMENTS
"Nuclear Remains reckons with the far-distant future and our all-too-present energy landscape. Regulatory structures, anthropological encounters, and political economy crisscross in this remarkable, responsible, and visionary book—engaging policymakers and lay readers alike." —Peter Galison, Joseph Pellegrino University Professor, Harvard University; coauthor of Objectivity
"A meticulously researched empirical account of how unfolding material and political arrangements for the enduring containment of nuclear remains emerge amid the instabilities of conflicting, competing, and ever-evolving values and priorities." —Penny Harvey, Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Manchester
"Saraç-Lesavre’s beautiful book shows us that the problem with long-term thinking is not that we are bad at it, but that it is hard, and that this hardness is part of our political, epistemic, and moral identity." —Daniel Sarewitz, Emeritus Professor of Science and Society, Arizona State University
Başak Saraç-Lesavre is Assistant Professor in the Center for the Sociology of Organizations at Science Po, Paris, as well as an Affiliate at the University of Saint Andrew’s Center for Energy Ethics. She was awarded the French Fulbright Fellowship and was a Visiting Fellow in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University.
An ethnography of U.S. nuclear waste policy, and how to understand contemporary societies’ attempts to establish “good” relations with the future.
Contemporary societies are often criticized for their incapacity to account for the long term. Nuclear Remains asks what happens when a society decides to think long term—examining the US efforts to hold present and distant futures together.
Focusing on the case of the US nuclear waste program, Başak Saraç-Lesavre argues that no temporal orientation is inherently ethical; what matters is how temporal orientations construed as desirable get translated into action.
To analyze how concerned actors seek to establish “good” relations between past, present, and future, Saraç-Lesavre introduces the problem of rendez-vous framework—tracing how temporal gaps are identified and resolutions formulated and inscribed in different forms of arrangements. Her multisited ethnographic research takes readers from Congressional debates over funding—to reconcile accountability to and immunity from politics—to Carlsbad, New Mexico, where local actors have been trying to keep their community attached to nuclear futures.
Over time, these arrangements face tests. They are barely ever considered au rendez-vous when meeting contemporary conditions, yet they produce significant effects: material, economic, political, and moral relations, and ultimately, societies themselves. This framework applies broadly to cases where temporal relations are at stake: climate change adaptation, government of commons, pension schemes, energy transition, and care systems.
Reviews
ENDORSEMENTS
"Nuclear Remains reckons with the far-distant future and our all-too-present energy landscape. Regulatory structures, anthropological encounters, and political economy crisscross in this remarkable, responsible, and visionary book—engaging policymakers and lay readers alike." —Peter Galison, Joseph Pellegrino University Professor, Harvard University; coauthor of Objectivity
"A meticulously researched empirical account of how unfolding material and political arrangements for the enduring containment of nuclear remains emerge amid the instabilities of conflicting, competing, and ever-evolving values and priorities." —Penny Harvey, Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Manchester
"Saraç-Lesavre’s beautiful book shows us that the problem with long-term thinking is not that we are bad at it, but that it is hard, and that this hardness is part of our political, epistemic, and moral identity." —Daniel Sarewitz, Emeritus Professor of Science and Society, Arizona State University
Author
Başak Saraç-Lesavre is Assistant Professor in the Center for the Sociology of Organizations at Science Po, Paris, as well as an Affiliate at the University of Saint Andrew’s Center for Energy Ethics. She was awarded the French Fulbright Fellowship and was a Visiting Fellow in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University.
