Citizen Science in Post-Fukushima Japan: The Gendered Scientization of Radiation Measurement

ABSTRACT

After the Fukushima nuclear accident, many laywomen established citizen radiation measuring organizations (CRMOs) to measure the concentration of radioactive materials in food to ensure its safety. These women had diverse motivations. As caretakers, many wanted to protect their families. Others saw it as important to arm themselves with science when the broader social discourse portrayed contamination concerns as irrational and harmful to food producers, and stereotyped women as overreacting due to their scientific illiteracy. Some women also became empowered and productive citizen scientists, influenced by the popular idea of women-in-science. The fluid relationships between scientization and citizens’ collective mobilizations make it particularly illuminating to analyze such shifting relationships between activism and science using Gieryn’s concept of boundary-work. Women’s motivations to participate in CRMOs were closely connected to the expanding scientization—the increasing role of science in defining and prescribing social problems. While they shared many sentiments with anti-nuclear movements, women often performed boundary-work in a way that constructed science as irreconcilable with activism. Many saw activism as threatening the legitimation provided by science: a particularly important issue for women, who were stereotyped and policed as anti-science and irrational after the accident. Activism was also understood as a highly masculinized space incompatible with the feminized caretaker role that many women took on, which initially provided the rationale for their involvement in citizen science. The concept of gendered scientization highlights how the turn to science in dealing with environmental threats might result in gendered opportunities and challenges in collective mobilization by citizens.     

Study of unique merging behavior under mixed traffic conditions

Roads in developing countries carry mixed traffic with wide variations in static and dynamic characteristics of vehicles. The traffic flow is also generally devoid of lane discipline, with vehicles occupying any available road space ahead. In such a regime of traffic flow, the phenomena of merging of vehicles at intersections of two roads is complex, warranting further study. The merging maneuvers at T-intersections under congested traffic conditions were studied microscopically through video-recording. In congested situations, the merging vehicle attempts a complex merging maneuver to enter the main traffic stream. Two unique merging processes are commonly observed in mixed traffic: group and vehicle cover merging (these are generally not observed in countries such as US). The author is using these words first time in this study. These reflect the different types of driver behavior – merging in groups, and by taking cover of another vehicle. Probabilistic models for group and vehicle cover merging are developed that capture this unique merging behavior. Comprehensive microscopic data collection and extraction were carried out to study the merging process at T-intersection under congested conditions. Merging models were then estimated using maximum likelihood method with disaggregate data that was collected for a case study T-intersection in Chennai city, India. Such models can find applications in simulation of highly congested traffic flow in a realistic manner under mixed traffic conditions. They can also give insights on devising better traffic control measures at such intersections.     

Introduction: symposium on Brooke Ackerly’s Just Responsibility: A Human Rights Theory of Global Justice

ABSTRACT

This symposium brings together normative and empirical scholars in dialogue on Brooke Ackerly’s innovative and compelling recent monograph, Just Responsibility. Contributors discuss the book’s distinctive grounded normative theory methodology, its arguments for how individuals can take appropriate responsibility for global structural injustices, and its potential for practical impact.     

眼跳发起位置对预视效应的影响

本文试图用实验的方法，通过调整目标词在句子中的位置，操纵目标词上注视点的眼跳发起位置，考察该变量对预视效应的影响。主要结果发现，和目标词上注视点的眼跳发起距离近的条件相比，眼跳发起距离远时凝视时间和回视路径时间的预视效应更大；但对数据的进一步分析表明这是一种阻碍效应。虽然“预视效益”这个词常用来代表预视加工，它实质包含了预视促进和阻碍两种不同的加工。本研究的结果有助于大家理解这两种不同性质的加工及其可能的影响因素。