Overview
In the aftermath of the Soviet Union's collapse, Kazakhstan inherited the remnants of one of the world's most contaminated landscapes: the Semipalatinsk Test Site, known locally as the Polygon. Resigned to dispossession, residents have chosen to remain on the abandoned nuclear test site, despite the isolation and the radioactive environment, rather than face marginalization or the rigors of a neoliberal world. Atomic Collective examines this nuclear legacy through a decade-long ethnographic examination of the village of Koian, situated on the border of the test site. Facing residual radiation all around them and isolation, Koianers persist, reshaping their pastoral existence among the ruins and scientific debates surrounding genetic damage. Drawing on first-hand accounts and archival research, this book explores the resilience and everyday survival strategies of a community left behind to fend for itself in the shadow of nuclear testing. It offers a unique perspective on life in a nuclear zone and poses fundamental questions about human resilience and the impact of historical events on a collective identity. Atomic Collective sheds light on a community overlooked in the larger Cold War histories of atomic testing.
Full Product Details
Author: Magdalena E. Stawkowski
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Imprint: University of Toronto Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 1.30cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.340kg
ISBN: 9781487560300
ISBN 10: 1487560303
Pages: 244
Publication Date: 06 June 2025
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Tertiary & Higher Education
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Manufactured on demand
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Reviews
“Magdalena E. Stawkowski’s book is an absorbing and nuanced ethnography of the struggles of everyday life in a post-nuclear village in Kazakhstan. Atomic Collective is based on long-term fieldwork in the village of Koian and captures unexpected contradictions showing that while the area is destitute and polluted by nuclear waste, the villagers have coined a survivalist attitude believing that their bodies have adapted to radiation. Stawkowski unravels the complex reasoning behind this life ethos. An engrossing story.” -- Joanna Mishtal, Professor of Community and Population Health, Lehigh University “Atomic Collective is a significant contribution to our understanding of social life and resilience in the post-nuclear age, post-Soviet society, and rural regions of Kazakhstan. It is an elegantly written, compelling account that effectively utilizes Stawkowski’s rich ethnographic and archival research. Highly readable and free from jargon, Stawkowski conveys her fieldwork experiences without centering the story on herself. As she shares her concerns about radiation poisoning, her shock at the lack of basic amenities, and her appreciation for the community’s strengths, we gain insight into the Koianers’ worldviews. Atomic Collective portrays how ethnographic fieldwork, built on trust, uncovers often neglected perspectives of marginalized communities.” -- Michele Rivkin-Fish, author of <em>Unmaking Russia’s Abortion Culture</em> “With a first-person narrative voice, Atomic Collective presents data, details, and insights gathered over a decade. Magdalena E. Stawkowski aims not only to detail the conditions and constraints faced by individuals but also to illuminate the ways that animate the varied meanings of, and constraints in, living a life within the atomic collective of Kazakh communities. This literary work is clearly communicated through well-crafted, richly detailed stories. The book is supported by an expansive array of citations, reflecting a broad reading and a strong command of nuclear histories and related scientific research fields.” -- Barbara Rose Johnston, Senior Research Fellow, Center for Political Ecology “What makes a place ‘unlivable’ and who decides? This question lies at the heart of Magdalena E. Stawkowski’s bold and remarkable book about the nuclear afterlives of a Kazakh community that resolutely refuses to be victimized or to disappear. From Cold War intrigue, secret scientific experiments, and local theories of genetic adaptation to radiation exposure, to the heroically mundane act of traversing the toxic and windswept Polygon nuclear testing zone, Atomic Collective is ethnography at its finest: it deftly uncovers the hidden histories and haunting legacies of nuclearism, sensitively rendered through richly textured social worlds.” -- Daniel Renfrew, Professor of Anthropology, West Virginia University
Author Information
Madgalena E. Stawkowski is a McCausland Faculty Fellow and an assistant professor in the department of anthropology at the University of South Carolina.
