Cold War Civil Defence in Western Europe: Sociotechnical Imaginaries of Survival and Preparedness

This edited collection explores Cold War civil defense in Western Europe, highlighting the need for historical contextualization and sociotechnical imaginaries to understand the social embeddedness of civil defense and its impact on societies and citizens.

\n Format: Paperback / softback
\n Length: 250 pages
\n Publication date: 07 December 2021
\n Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland AG
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This open-access edited collection brings together established and new perspectives on Cold War civil defense in Western Europe within a common analytical framework that also facilitates comparative and transnational dimensions. The current interest in creating disaster-resilient societies demands new histories of civil defense. Historical contextualization is essential in order to understand what is at stake in preparing, devising, and implementing forms of preparedness, protection, and security that are specifically targeted at societies and citizens. Applying the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries to civil defense history, the chapters of this volume cover a range of new themes, from technology and materiality to media, memory, and everyday experience. The book underlines the social embeddedness of civil defense by detailing how it both prompted new forms of social interaction and reflected norms and visions of the 'good society in an age where nuclear technology seemed to hold the key to both doom and salvation.

This open-access edited collection brings together established and new perspectives on Cold War civil defense in Western Europe within a common analytical framework that also facilitates comparative and transnational dimensions. The current interest in creating disaster-resilient societies demands new histories of civil defense. Historical contextualization is essential in order to understand what is at stake in preparing, devising, and implementing forms of preparedness, protection, and security that are specifically targeted at societies and citizens. Applying the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries to civil defense history, the chapters of this volume cover a range of new themes, from technology and materiality to media, memory, and everyday experience. The book underlines the social embeddedness of civil defense by detailing how it both prompted new forms of social interaction and reflected norms and visions of the 'good society in an age where nuclear technology seemed to hold the key to both doom and salvation.

\n Weight: 356g\n
Dimension: 210 x 148 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9783030842833\n
Edition number: 1st ed. 2022\n