Remembering desirable futures? Civil defence memories and everyday life in Sweden and the United Kingdom

Marie Cronqvist, Matthew Grant

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingBook chapterResearchpeer-review

Abstract

This chapter explores how the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries can be used to examine civil defence as remembered. In focus stand oral histories testifying to the entanglement of civil defence in everyday life. The chapter employs a historical ethnography approach, using interviews and questionnaires collected between 2006 and 2012 in Sweden and the UK. The analysis, which departs from the three themes of localities, temporalities and mediations, illustrates the value of a more ‘bottom-up’ approach and discusses how we may refine the sociotechnical imaginaries framework to incorporate at least some elements of the ‘fuzziness’ of everyday life. It shows how elements of everyday culture relate to processes of embedding, resistance and extension of civil defence in Sweden, the UK and beyond.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCold War civil defence in Western Europe
Subtitle of host publicationSociotechnical imaginaries of survival and preparedness
EditorsMarie Cronqvist, Casper Sylvest, Rosanna Farbøl
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
Chapter9
Pages209-231
ISBN (Electronic)978-3-030-84281-9
ISBN (Print)978-3-030-84280-2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021
EventNew Directions in Civil Defence History - University of Southern Denmark, Institute for Public Health, Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Duration: 2019 Aug 282019 Aug 29

Conference

ConferenceNew Directions in Civil Defence History
Country/TerritoryDenmark
CityCopenhagen
Period2019/08/282019/08/29

Subject classification (UKÄ)

  • History
  • Media Studies
  • Ethnology

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