Atom global

Abstract

The workshop »Global Atoms«, held at the Collaborative Research Centre »Representations« at Humboldt University in Berlin in November 2011, intended to open threads into a global history of the »nuclear age«. The participants discussed the history of the civil and military use of nuclear technologies and mapped out social and political developments after the Second World War. They presented a wide range of case studies from Europe, Eastern Europe, and East Asia. During the discussion, participants sought to investigate cultural differences and similarities in dealing with the risks of nuclear technologies. They discussed possible perspectives of a global historiography of the »nuclear age«. The first panel, »Cultures«, focused on how nuclear tech- nologies changed the everyday life of people. The second panel, »Crises«, revolved around the question of how different societies reacted to nuclear disaster. After the workshop, the Swiss writer Adolf Muschg and the German human rights campaigner Sebastian Pflugbeil met for a panel discussion in the premises of the Berlin-based newspaper »Die Tageszeitung«. Muschg and Pflugbeil expressed their pessimism regarding the ability of mankind to draw lessons from nuclear catastrophes like Chernobyl or Fukushima. The workshop and the panel discussion were organized by Nadin Heé, Daniel Hedinger, and Matthias Braun.