1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910817609403321

Autore

Mathai Manu V. <1976-, >

Titolo

Nuclear power, economic development discourse and the environment : the case of India / / Manu V. Mathai

Pubbl/distr/stampa

London ; ; New York : , : Routledge, , 2013

ISBN

0-203-10014-X

1-283-97334-0

1-136-22991-4

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (247 p.)

Collana

Routledge explorations in environmental studies ; ; 2

Disciplina

333.792/40954

Soggetti

Nuclear energy - India

Sustainable development - India

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front Cover; Nuclear Power, Economic Development Discourse and the Environment; Copyright Page; Contents; Preface; Acknowledgments; List of abbreviations; 1. Passions of power and the "tryst with destiny"; 1.1 Modernizing India, nuclear power and the environment; 1.2 A short history of nuclear power; 1.3 Approach and tools; 2. Modernity, Cornucopianism and the megamachine; 2.1 Introducing modernity; 2.2 The Cornucopian predisposition; 2.3 Cornucopianism as the development discourse; 2.4 Environmental crisis and modern environmentalisms; 2.5 Managed Cornucopia as environmentalism

2.6 Emergence of the megamachine2.7 Elements of the megamachine organization of society; 2.8 The megamachine organization of society and the limits of human-centered agency; 3. The evolution of India's economic development discourse; 3.1 Two competing visions for India's future; 3.2 Building a megamachine organization of society; 3.3 Despite the evidence; 4. The embrace of nuclear power and the development-energy treadmill in India; 4.1 Embrace of nuclear power; 4.2 Cornucopianism and the development-energy treadmill; 4.3 Entrenched high-energy throughput

5. The advance of economic liberalization in India5.1 Building a modern megamachine organization of society; 5.2 Managed Cornucopia; 5.3 Geopolitics, Cornucopianism and nuclear power; 6. Political economy of



nuclear power in India; 6.1 Modernity's unexamined privilege; 6.2 Nuclear power and modern technique; 6.3 Reinterpreting modernity's commodification impulse; 6.4 Sustaining power sans politics; 7. Beyond Cornucopianism and the megamachine organization; 7.1 Toward a human-centered development, energy and environment discourse; 7.2 End-use energy planning: the "DEFENDUS" framework

7.3 The human development and capability approach7.4 Ideas for sustainable structures of living together: the Sustainable Energy Utility (SEU) as a template; 8. Epilogue; 8.1 India: considered through Cornucopianism and the megamachine organization; 8.2 Alternatives to Cornucopianism and the megamachine organization; 8.3 Situating strategies of resistance; 8.4 Unaddressed questions and pressing realities; Notes; Bibliography; Index

Sommario/riassunto

Nuclear power is often characterized as a ""green technology."" Technologies are rarely, if ever, socially isolated artefacts. Instead, they materially represent an embodiment of values and priorities. Nuclear power is no different. It is a product of a particular political economy and the question is whether that political economy can helpfully engage with the challenge of addressing the environmental crisis on a finite, inequitable and shared planet. For developing countries like India, who are presently making infrastructure investments which will have long legacies, it is imperative tha