Life Exposed: Biological Citizens after Chernobyl
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"An ethnographic triumph. Life Exposed is as much a cultural study of science as it is a history of a nuclear disaster and a story of the politics of nation making in Ukraine. As powerful an analysis of biological citizenship and national technical processes of managing risks as I have ever read. Yet also a moving meditation on the aftermath of disaster for a poor Eastern European state, including the moral and medical morass faced by those who negotiate its world of disability."—Arthur Kleinman, Harvard University"This extremely interesting work treats the social, political, and personal implications of Chernobyl as a prism—reflecting the political-economic, clinical, legal, and biographical processes that characterize this 'open-ended' catastrophe. There is nothing comparable. Very well written, it will be of major interest to readers in risk analysis and risk sociology, science studies, political science, as well as to anyone interested in the consequences of megatechnologies."—Ulrich Beck, author of The Brave New World of Work and What is Globalization?"This is a marvelous piece of research on a timely topic that ought to be of great interest to a broad audience in sociocultural anthropology, to scholars and makers of public policy, to specialists in the politics of transition, and to social science and humanities scholars interested in contemporary Ukraine. Petryna's story is very moving and the material is wonderfully rich and suggestive."—Mark L. von Hagen, Columbia University, author of Soldiers in the Proletarian Dictatorship"Life Exposed is a fascinating and highly original ethnographic analysis of the fragile political, economic, and social transition to post-Soviet citizenship in Ukraine as viewed through the Chernobyl disaster. Above all, it opens a window on a harrowing world with which most English-language readers will be unfamiliar. Through Petryna's well-written presentation of the illness narratives we slowly come to comprehend the enormity of the situation. I know of no other work that makes such a clear case for the importance of biomedical world views, practices, bureaucracies, and negotiations as foundational to contemporary citizenship."—Rayna Rapp, New York University, author of Testing Women, Testing the Fetus Larissa Remennick - Journal of the American Medical Association The book presents exceptionally rich anthropological material generated through observations and interviews. . . . The true scope of the human tragedy caused by this man-made catastrophe comes to the fore via biological stories of Petryna's informants. . . . Most of the book's heroes were directly affected by radioactive fallout and often paid a terrible price, losing their physical and mental health.
List of Figures and TablesAcknowledgmentsNote on TransliterationCh. 1Life Politics after Chernobyl1Ch. 2Technical Error: Measures of Life and Risk34Ch. 3Chernobyl in Historical Light63Ch. 4Illness as Work: Human Market Transition82Ch. 5Biological Citizenship115Ch. 6Local Science and Organic Processes149Ch. 7Self and Social Identity in Transition191Ch. 8Conclusion215Notes221Bibliography239Index253
