I wrote a paper a while back that never made it to a journal for publication. I don’t really think I’ll have time to get back to it while its still timely, so instead I’ll just put it up here. The paper compares the actions of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to those of an alcoholic. My hope is that it offers some insight into TEPCO’s decision making process following the nuclear reactor meltdown in Fukushima. The abstract is below followed by a link to a pdf of the paper.
Abstract: This paper frames the conduct of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO)following the meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant as those of an alcoholic still searching for their “bottom.” The actions and legal contortions of TEPCO are coupled with my fieldwork among Tokyo’s sobriety groups, using the definitional apparatus of alcoholism and recovery to better make sense of events at Fukushima. The notion of “hitting bottom,” that an alcoholic must loss everything before change is possible, allows for an understanding of TEPCO’s response to the Fukushima crisis as one mired in an untenable desire to control a chaotic situation.
To view or download a pdf for the complete paper click here.
