Nuclear Rites: A Weapons Laboratory at the End of the Cold War by Hugh Gusterson (review)
Nuclear Rites: A Weapons Laboratory at the End of the Cold War by Hugh Gusterson (review)
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核仪式：冷战结束时的武器实验室休·古斯特森（Hugh Gusterson）（评论）
DOI：
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发表时间：
1997
影响因子：
0.7
通讯作者：
Russell Olwell
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Russell Olwell
基于劳伦斯利弗莫尔国家实验室的实地考察--该实验室设计了中子弹和MX导弹弹头--《核仪式》带领读者深入了解核武器实验室的绝密文化。探索科学家的黑色幽默，仪式化的秘密和纪律的情感世界，人类学家休·古斯特森揭示了激励他们工作的信仰和价值观。他发现许多科学家是基督徒，深信他们的工作是道德的，还有一些是反对越南战争和里根-布什议程的自由主义者。Gusterson还研究了反核运动，得出的结论是，科学家和抗议者在令人惊讶的方面是相似的，两种文化都反映了日益受到威胁的中产阶级的希望和焦虑。在一个生动的，广泛的帐户，古斯特森分析了实验室员工的道德和政治，安全法规对科学家的私人生活的影响，以及核试验的作用-超越了明显的科学之一-作为仪式的启动和超越。他展示了科学家如何学会以一种近乎浪漫的方式认同他们设计的机器的力量--他们并不害怕的机器。在20世纪80年代，“围墙后面的世界”因实验室门口的大规模反核抗议和冷战结束而陷入危机。Gusterson将反核运动的出现与性别角色的转变和后工业资本主义的发展联系起来，得出结论，科学家和抗议者在令人惊讶的方面是相似的，两种文化都反映了日益受到威胁的中产阶级的希望和焦虑。
Based on fieldwork at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory - the facility that designed the neutron bomb and the warhead for the MX missile - "Nuclear Rites" takes the reader deep inside the top-secret culture of a nuclear weapons lab. Exploring the scientists' world of dark humor, ritualized secrecy, and disciplined emotions, anthropologist Hugh Gusterson uncovers the beliefs and values that animate their work. He discovers that many of the scientists are Christians, deeply convinced of the morality of their work, and a number are liberals who opposed the Vietnam War and the Reagan-Bush agenda. Gusterson also examines the anti-nuclear movement, concluding that the scientists and protesters are alike in surprising ways, with both cultures reflecting the hopes and anxieties of an increasingly threatened middle class. In a lively, wide-ranging account, Gusterson analyzes the ethics and politics of laboratory employees, the effects of security regulations on the scientists' private lives, and the role of nuclear tests - beyond the obvious scientific one--as rituals of initiation and transcendence. He shows how the scientists learn to identify in an almost romantic way with the power of the machines they design - machines they do not fear. In the 1980s the 'world behind the fence' was thrown into crisis by massive anti-nuclear protests at the gates of the lab and by the end of the Cold War. Linking the emergence of the anti-nuclear movement to shifting gender roles and the development of postindustrial capitalism, Gusterson concludes that the scientists and protesters are alike in surprising ways, and that both cultures reflect the hopes and anxieties of an increasingly threatened middle class.