Ciudadanía biológica: ciencia y políticas sobre poblaciones expuestas a Chernobyl

Adriana Petryna

doi:10.48160/18517072re42.595

Authors

Adriana Petryna University of Pennsylvania

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.48160/18517072re42.595

Keywords:

citizenship, biomedicine, chernobyl, social wellfare

Abstract

The transition from socialism to market capitalism in the former Soviet republics brought about profound transformations not only in politics but also a significant reordering of bodies, populations, and categories of citizenship. The technocratic management of groups affected by the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine offers a unique lens through which to examine this process. Chernobyl exemplifies a moment when scientific knowability—or the capacity of scientific knowledge—collapsed, leading to the emergence of new frameworks and categories of rights. Previous models of social welfare relied on precise definitions that situated citizens and the attributes defining their status within a web of established categories, which formed the basis for demands for rights recognition. The case I analyze here demonstrates how ambiguities in categorizing suffering created a political arena where broader notions of the state, forms of citizenship, and informal economies were reformulated.

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