"Know-It-All" and "Pain in the Neck": Normative and Oppositional Nuclear Knowledge Production in Post-Fukushima France

Understanding how knowledge pertaining to technology is created and transmitted to lay publics is central in understanding options available to stakeholders. Identifying knowledge shaping processes reveals underlying power dynamics affecting public perception and ultimately policy outcomes. Using the specific example of France’s civil nuclear program, I address how normative stakeholders protect the status quo to establish legitimacy and maintain a dominant position in knowledge construction. I also consider the strategies available to other actors, including oppositional stakeholders, who possess alternative knowledge. After World War II, France made the decision to develop an extensive civil nuclear program, currently providing a large proportion of France’s electricity. Closely monitored by the French government as a way to protect its energy independence and to develop technological expertise, the unique structure of the French nuclear program prevents alternatives to nuclear power from emerging. In particular, despite years of existence, the disjointed anti-nuclear movement has failed to provide long-term, efficient changes to France’s energy production practices. A long history of nuclear dependence creates a context that praises nuclear energy while stigmatizing attempts to question or contest the hegemony of the nuclear industry. Catastrophic events, such as the Fukushima nuclear disaster, provide unique opportunities for oppositional stakeholders to challenge the power of normative actors and trigger an informed discussion among the public. Interactions between opposing stakeholders – or lack thereof – play an important role in influencing the balance – and the outcome – of the debate about controversial technological issues. Drawing from the literature on political opportunity structures, as well as the literature focusing on social movement tactics and the production of knowledge, I consider dynamics related to the production of knowledge about nuclear energy between various stakeholders. Using qualitative methods including semi-structured interviews and archival documents offering unique insight into the nuclear debate in France, I discuss how stakeholder groups interact and respond to each other, creating intricate dynamics that produce nuclear knowledge and convey information about what is important to know – and to ignore – about nuclear power