Description
Is anti-nuclear resistance solely a human endeavour? In this paper, I explore the literatures on nuclear geographies (Alexis-Martin et al, 2021), transnational anti-nuclear activism (Eschle, 2023), and feminist geopolitics (Dixon, 2016) in relation to the feminist new materialism of Karen Barad (2007; 2019). I attend to non-humans not just as passive victims of nuclear development and radioactive pollution, but rather as agentive beings imbricated in the emergence and evolution of nuclear landscapes. Following Molfese’s (2023) anti-anthropocentric reconceptualization of resistance, I consider how anti-nuclear activism is constituted from myriad entangled human and non-human bodies. Furthermore, these entanglements cross borders and connect disparate groups, some of which may already be well aware of more-than-human agency (e.g. indigenous peoples). Such an understanding of the dynamics of anti-nuclear activism may contribute to more just and effective practices of anti-nuclear activism across and despite borders and to increased recognition of the role of non-humans in resisting socially and environmentally negative development more generally.
