Technology hype, promises, and expectations: The discussion on small modular reactors in the Finnish newspaper 'Helsingin Sanomat' in 2000-2022

While the construction of collective promises is vital to the success of any techno-scientific innovation, it also entails the risk of overpromising and cycles of hype and disappointment. This article explores the discursive construction of the nuclear sector's latest promise concerning small modular reactors (SMRs), using Finland as an example. It provides a brief overview of the Finnish context of SMR development and analyzes it's coverage in the leading Finnish daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat 2000-2022. Efforts at promise construction have so far been aimed at building legitimacy for SMRs, while strengthening credibility - another key element of successful promise construction - has only just begun. The increasing number of SMR-related articles indicates a growing hype, but the absence of a corresponding 'hype language' suggests that the considerable media attention does not automatically translate into emphatic media coverage and discursive hyping.Die Konstruktion kollektiver Versprechen ist zwar für den Erfolg jeder technologisch-wissenschaftlichen Innovation von entscheidender Bedeutung, birgt jedoch auch das Risiko allzu großer Versprechungen und Hype-Zyklen sowie Enttäuschung. Dieser Forschungsartikel untersucht die diskursive Konstruktion neuester Versprechen im Nuklearsektor am Beispiel kleiner modularer Reaktoren (SMRs) in Finnland. Er gibt einen kurzen Überblick über die SMR-Entwicklung in Finnland und analysiert die Berichterstattung in der führenden finnischen Tageszeitung Helsingin Sanomat zwischen 2000 und 2022. Bisher zielten die Bemühungen darauf ab, die Legitimität von SMRs zu stärken, während die Verbesserung der Glaubwürdigkeit - eine weitere wichtige Voraussetzung für die erfolgreiche Konstruktion von Versprechen - gerade erst begonnen hat. Die wachsende Zahl von SMR-bezogenen Artikeln deutet auf einen zunehmenden Hype hin, aber das Fehlen einer entsprechenden 'Hype-Sprache' legt nahe, dass die beträchtliche Medienaufmerksamkeit nicht automatisch zu einer verstärkten Medienberichterstattung und einem diskursiven Hype führt

Kuinka mitata yliopiston vuorovaikutusta, vaikuttavuutta ja kolmatta tehtävää? Yhteiskunnallisen vuorovaikutuksen mittaamisen esteet humanistis-yhteiskuntatieteellisillä aloilla

Käsittelemme tässä artikkelissa yhteiskunnallista vuorovaikutusta ja sen mittaamiseen liittyviä haasteita erityisesti humanistis-yhteiskuntatieteellisellä kentällä.nonPeerReviewe

Ohuesta osallistumisesta yhteiseen ongelmanratkaisuun. Tiekartta kohti yhteistoiminnallisempaa Suomea

Kimurantteja ongelmia kukaan ei pysty ratkaisemaan yksin. Esimerkiksi ilmastonmuutos, luontokato, väestöryhmien eriytyminen ja kaupunkien maankäyttöpaineet vaativat erilaisten tavoitteiden yhteensovittamista ja yhteistyötä eri toimijoiden, kuten kansalaisyhteiskunnan toimijoiden, viranomaisten ja yritysten välillä. Oletko ongelmanratkaisuprosessin koollekutsuja? Julkaisu auttaa suunnittelemaan näiden prosessien kehittämistä yhteistoiminnallisiksi. Oletko ongelmanratkaisun muu osapuoli tai yhteistoiminnan edistämisestä kiinnostunut? Julkaisu antaa ajatuksia siihen, miten voit itse ja miten organisaatiosi tai yhteisösi voi toimia suhteessa yhteisen ongelmanratkaisun prosesseihin

Environmental conflict as a social construction: Nuclear waste conflicts in Finland

Environmental conflicts are a familiar phenomenon in all industrial societies, and social scientists have produced a great number of studies of different environmental conflicts. One conventional way to conceptualize them is known as NIMBY ("not in my backyard"). Although the recent NIMBY literature has revealed the complexity of the issue, the approach continues to be beset by a number of problems. It has been difficult to conceptualize the dynamic character of a conflict from this perspective. This paper suggests that the theory of environmental conflicts should shift in an epistemological and social interactionist direction, toward social constructionist theory. This paper offers a constructionist analysis of three environmental conflicts in Finland. The disputes over the siting of a nuclear waste facility are viewed as processes of perceiving radioactive waste in the different municipalities. The conflicts are examined as struggles over scientific‐technical, economic, and political definitions of the radioactive objects and of the conflicts themselves.peerReviewe

The struggle over risk : the spatial, temporal, and cultural dimensions of protest against nuclear technology

This thesis examines the social struggle over nuclear risks. The birth and subsequent development of anti-nuclear protest are closely interwoven with the creation of nuclear risks, the public perception of risks, and the ongoing debates over the acceptability of these risks. The spatial scope of the anti-nuclear movement has varied from international protests against nuclear weapons to national protests against nuclear power and local protests against the siting of nuclear waste facility. The focus of these protests has also varied in the course of time. The protest against nuclear weapons emerged immediately after World War II, whilst the use of nuclear power for civilian purposes was at that time greeted with satisfaction. However, public enthusiasm over civilian applications declined rapidly at the end of the 1970s when the anti-nuclear power movement expressed serious doubts about the safety of nuclear power plants. The next phase of the antinuclear protest in the 1980s and 1990s involved disputes over the siting of nuclear waste facilities. The long struggle over nuclear technology has created a special global nuclear culture, which is actively constructed in interaction between antinuclear protesters and pro-nuclear actors. This global nuclear culture consists of knowledge, beliefs, and values, which are compressed into interpretative packages for and against nuclear technology. At the core of this nuclear culture is the concept of 'risk', which creates collective consciousness on the one hand, and is itself a collective construct on the other hand. One of my findings is that the societal evaluation of any new technology is always carried out in varying political, social, and cultural contexts. The thesis consists of five articles and a summary article. The first article deals with international anti-nuclear protest, which is composed of the anti-nuclear weapons and the anti-nuclear power movement. The second article is a study of local nuclear waste conflicts in three Finnish municipalities. The study of local conflicts is continued in the third article; this time from the viewpoint of risk perception. The fourth article is a joint effort of my Swedish colleague, Rolf Lidskog and myself. It is a comparative analysis of Finnish and Swedish nuclear waste conflicts in the context of national nuclear power and nuclear waste policies. In the fifth article, I examine the development of the nuclear issue by analyzing several time-series of people's attitude surveys as well as previous studies of the nuclear debate

Yhteiskuntateorian marginaalista valtavirtaan : yhteiskuntatieteellisen ympäristötutkimuksen suurempia silmiä kehittämässä

Kirjallisuusarvostel

Haastattelussa professori Alain Touraine

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