The Skyline Is Changing: Editing Space and Discourse in Nuclear Decommissioning

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Drawing on 5 years of ethnographic fieldwork at and around the nuclear facilities at Sellafield in Northwest England, I engage with a ubiquitous turn of phrase that describes the material, visually striking reality of a slowly disappearing industrial landscape, while wishing another, morally charged technosocietal reality into existence. “The skyline is changing” is a discursive trope wielded by the Sellafield Limited company and echoed in local media and parlance. It is also a case of visually performative rhetoric that seeks to tame uncertainty by celebrating examples of the nuclear industry’s selective editing of an iconic skyline.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)487-514
Number of pages28
JournalVisual Anthropology
Volume36
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Feb 2024

Keywords

  • nuclear decommissioning; visual rhetoric

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