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E-book

Title Cold War civil defence in Western Europe : sociotechnical imaginaries of survival and preparedness / Marie Cronqvist, Rosanna Farbøl, Casper Sylvest, editors
Published Cham : Palgrave Macmillan, [2022]
©2022

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Description 1 online resource : illustrations (some color)
Contents 1. Introduction: New paths in civil defence history- Marie Cronqvist, Rosanna Farbl and Casper Sylvest -- 2. Order on their home fronts: Imagining war and social control in 1950s NATO- Iben Bjrnsson -- 3. The imagined disastrous: West German civil defence between war preparation and emergency management 19501990- Jochen Molitor -- 4. Normalising nuclear war: Narrative scenarios, imaginative geographies and sites of leisure in 1950s Britain- Jonathan Hogg -- 5. Embedding preparedness, assigning responsibility: The role of film in sociotechnical imaginaries of civil defence- Peter Bennesved and Casper Sylvest -- 6. The world is her home: The role of women volunteers in Dutch civil defence in the 1950s and 1960s -- Dick van Lente -- 7. Ruins of resilience: Imaginaries and materiality imagineered and embedded in civil defence architecture- Rosanna Farbl -- 8. Framing civil defence critique: Swiss physicians resistance to the Coordinated Medical Services in the 1980s- Sibylle Marti -- 9. Remembering desirable futures? Civil defence memories and everyday life in Sweden and the United Kingdom- Marie Cronqvist and Matthew Grant -- 10. Conclusion: Civil defence futures (re)imagined- Marie Cronqvist, Rosanna Farbl and Casper Sylvest
Summary This open access edited collection brings together established and new perspectives on Cold War civil defence 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 defence. 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 defence 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 defence 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
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Civil defense -- Europe -- History -- 20th century
Emergency management.
Civil defense
Emergency management
Europe
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
Author Cronqvist, Marie, 1973- editor.
Farbøl, Rosanna, editor
Sylvest, Casper, editor
ISBN 9783030842819
3030842819