Entanglement of labor and environment in an emerging nuclear power landscape : the Akkuyu NPP
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Date
2023
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Thesis (M.A.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, 2023.
Abstract
The Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in the city of Mersin in Turkey marks a turning point for the country’s historical nuclear ambitions. Laden with promises of development, catching up with the developed world, and achieving welfare; the Akkuyu NPP holds immense symbolic power in the national imaginary. As an infrastructure megaproject; the Akkuyu NPP has been challenged by environmental mobilization at different conjunctures. However, these patterns of resistance are shaped and constrained by socioeconomic and political conditions at each historical stage. This study looks at these conditions as areas of conflict for environmental mobilization; and in this respect, investigates the impact of uneven distribution of costs and benefits, question of labor and employment, and discursive legitimization. It considers the way in which the Akkuyu NPP persisted and acquired popular consent for its existence, in order to seek answers to the broader question of linking environmental struggles with social injustice.