De la fiction faire science : mobiliser un feuilleton télévisé des années 1960 pour parler autrement du travail dans le nucléaire

Abstract

In order to move away from abstract representations or from the more or less conscious recycling of ready-made discourses about labour in the nuclear industry, we propose to rely on an archival delight: a TV serial of 26 13-minute long episodes that was broadcast in 1968. We have shown excerpts from this serial to people who currently live near the nuclear site that appears at length in the film. In so doing, we hope to generate accounts centred on personal experience to talk about the nuclear industry’s implantation and local development. This paper discusses the challenges of selecting the image of labour to use in this experimental research setting. It further examines how interviewees can make sense of the reflexive memory exercise that such enquiry encourages, which is reminiscent of filmic self-confrontation.

Keywords

• nuclear
• risk
• territory
• television
• fiction
• interview