Exploring radiation measurement after Fukushima: When media ecology meets citizen science

Authors

  • Yasuhito Abe Komazawa University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.12.17642

Keywords:

citizen science, media ecology, Marshall McLuhan, Fukushima, radiation-measuring

Abstract

While various scholars have investigated the role of citizens in generating scientific data after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster under the labels of citizen science and citizen sensing, this essay draws on media ecology and explores its potential theoretical usefulness for enhancing our understanding of post-Fukushima citizen science practices. Taking Marshall McLuhan’s perspective of technology as a medium, this article creates a theoretical framework for foregrounding the role of a measurement device (of radiation levels, in this case) in extending its user’s body and mind. In doing so, this essay attempts to contribute to the fields of media studies and Science, Technology, and Society (STS).

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Author Biography

Yasuhito Abe, Komazawa University

He currently works as senior lecturer at the Faculty of Global Media Studies of Komazawa University, Japan. His research involves citizen science after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster of 2011.

References

Abe, Y. (2015). Measuring for what: Networked citizen science movements after the Fukushima nuclear accident. [Tesis doctoral, University of Southern California]. USC Digital Library. http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p15799coll3/id/620280

Abe, Y. (2020). Citizen before science: R-DAN and its monitorial ethic after Chernobyl. En M. Fathisalout-Bollon, & A. Berti-Suman (Eds.), Legal, social and ethical perspectives on health & technology (pp. 65–90). Sovoie Mont Blanc University Press.

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Published

2022-02-02

How to Cite

Abe, Y. (2022). Exploring radiation measurement after Fukushima: When media ecology meets citizen science. Metode Science Studies Journal, (12), 41–45. https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.12.17642
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Issue

The future of science (2022)

Section

Citizen science. Society takes centre stage

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