Knowing Nuclear Weapons Tests : Witness Activism and Oppositional Knowledge in the Cold War Colonial Pacific
(2026) In Studia Historica Lundensia- Abstract
- This dissertation examines how actors in the Pacific produced, mobilized, and circulated oppositional knowledge about nuclear weapons testing from the 1950s to the early 2000s, with French Polynesia as its primary focus. At its core is witness activism: coordinated practices of testimony, document retrieval and annotation, archiving, publication, and transnational circulation through which activists contested state secrecy, scientific uncertainty, and colonial power. Witness activism is developed both as an analytical category and as a lens for understanding how non-state actors claimed epistemic authority under conditions of institutional opacity and contested expertise.
Methodologically, the study combines archival ethnography,... (More) - This dissertation examines how actors in the Pacific produced, mobilized, and circulated oppositional knowledge about nuclear weapons testing from the 1950s to the early 2000s, with French Polynesia as its primary focus. At its core is witness activism: coordinated practices of testimony, document retrieval and annotation, archiving, publication, and transnational circulation through which activists contested state secrecy, scientific uncertainty, and colonial power. Witness activism is developed both as an analytical category and as a lens for understanding how non-state actors claimed epistemic authority under conditions of institutional opacity and contested expertise.
Methodologically, the study combines archival ethnography, testimony theory, and a critical-realist history of knowledge. It treats activist archives as dynamic sites of counter-agnotology, where alternative histories of nuclear colonialism and environmental harm were assembled and sustained. Empirically, it focuses on two transnational nodes, the Danielssons’ collections and the Obsarm network, tracing how situated knowledge was translated into metropolitan and international arenas, challenged dominant epidemiological frameworks and safety claims, and informed debates on recognition, compensation, and disarmament. The dissertation advances three interrelated claims. First, activist archives function as ongoing epistemic practices in which fragments of secrecy, testimony, and documentation are transformed into durable evidence. Second, witness activism shows how oppositional actors constructed epistemic authority by mobilizing documentary, scientific, and experiential knowledge to contest official narratives. Third, these practices reveal shifting repertoires of anti-testing epistemic labor, from documentarian and structural critique in the early 1970s to an increasing reliance on testimony in the 1980s and 1990s.
In this respect, the dissertation engages Didier Fassin’s argument on the rise of humanitarian reason. It shows that while testimony gained institutional authority in the 1990s, it did not emerge ex nihilo but was embedded in earlier oppositional epistemologies. The shift toward testimony thus marks a reconfiguration of epistemic authority, as witnessing came to mediate claims about harm, responsibility, and justice. By foregrounding these transformations, the study situates Pacific anti-nuclear activism within broader histories of decolonization, environmental justice, and human rights, and contributes to debates on how marginalized actors contest secrecy and produce credible knowledge under conditions of structural inequality.
(Less) - Abstract (Swedish)
- Denna avhandling undersöker hur aktörer i Stilla havet producerade och spred oppositionell kunskap om kärnvapentester från 1950-talet till början av 2000-talet, med Franska Polynesien i fokus. För att analysera detta lanseras begreppet vittnesaktivism som övergripande står för organiserade praktiker av vittnesmål, dokumentinsamling, arkivering och transnationell spridning, genom vilka aktörer utmanade sekretess, vetenskaplig osäkerhet och kolonial makt. Vittnesaktivism förstås här både som analytiskt begrepp och som ett sätt att analysera hur icke-statliga aktörer etablerade kunskapsauktoritet utifrån villkor av omstridd expertis och kontroll av information.
Studien kombinerar arkivbaserad etnografi, vittnesmålsteori och en... (More) - Denna avhandling undersöker hur aktörer i Stilla havet producerade och spred oppositionell kunskap om kärnvapentester från 1950-talet till början av 2000-talet, med Franska Polynesien i fokus. För att analysera detta lanseras begreppet vittnesaktivism som övergripande står för organiserade praktiker av vittnesmål, dokumentinsamling, arkivering och transnationell spridning, genom vilka aktörer utmanade sekretess, vetenskaplig osäkerhet och kolonial makt. Vittnesaktivism förstås här både som analytiskt begrepp och som ett sätt att analysera hur icke-statliga aktörer etablerade kunskapsauktoritet utifrån villkor av omstridd expertis och kontroll av information.
Studien kombinerar arkivbaserad etnografi, vittnesmålsteori och en kritiskt realistisk version av kunskapshistoria. Arkiven ses här som dynamiska arenor där alternativa berättelser om kärnvapenkolonialism och miljöskador har skapats och bevarats. Empiriskt fokuserar den på Danielssons samlingar och Obsarm-nätverket och visar hur lokal kunskap översattes till nationella och internationella sammanhang samt påverkade debatter om erkännande, kompensation och nedrustning.
Avhandlingen visar tre saker: att aktivisters arkiv fungerar som pågående kunskapspraktiker där fragment av sekretess och vittnesmål blir till bevis; att oppositionella aktörer byggde kunskapsauktoritet genom att kombinera erfarenhetsbaserad och vetenskaplig kunskap; och att detta oppositionella kunskapsarbete förändrades över tid, från dokumentation och strukturell kritik till en allt större betoning på vittnesmål under 1980- och 1990-talen.
Med utgångspunkt teori om vittnande och humanitär rationalitet visar avhandlingen att vittnesmålens ökade betydelse inte uppstod ur tomma intet, utan byggde på tidigare oppositionella kunskapsformer. Förskjutningen markerar en omformning av kunskapsauktoritet där vittnandet blev centralt för att formulera skada, ansvar och rättvisa. Studien placerar därmed Stilla havets antikärnvapenrörelser i bredare sammanhang av dekolonisering, miljörättvisa och mänskliga rättigheters historia. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/908fbf12-7cf7-4855-a0a4-84f38ab28d40
- author
- Öhman, Anton LU
- supervisor
-
- Johan Östling LU
- Lina Sturfelt LU
- opponent
-
- professor Andersen, Casper, Aarhus universitet
- organization
- publishing date
- 2026-05-07
- type
- Thesis
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Kärnvapen, Kalla kriget, Franska Polynesien, nukleär kolonialism, vittnande, aktivism, vittnesaktivism, epistemisk auktoritet, agnotologi, Kunskap, kunskapshistoria, kunskapsaktörer, kolonialism, Stilla havet, nuclear weapons, fallout, Cold War, Testimony and Witness, French Polynesia, Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands, agnotology, oppositional knowledge, knowledge production, Nuclear weapons tests, archival ethnography, Witness activism, Colonialism, decolonization, disarmament, late 20th century, History of Knowledge, CEP, Moruroa, Poisoned Reign
- in
- Studia Historica Lundensia
- issue
- 40
- pages
- 374 pages
- publisher
- Department of History, Lund university
- defense location
- B:152, LUX, Helgonavägen 3, Lund
- defense date
- 2026-06-05 13:15:00
- ISSN
- 1650-755X
- ISBN
- 978-91-90055-88-5
- 978-91-90055-89-2
- project
- Witnessing Nuclear Weapons Tests
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 908fbf12-7cf7-4855-a0a4-84f38ab28d40
- date added to LUP
- 2026-05-06 16:43:47
- date last changed
- 2026-05-11 14:11:15
@phdthesis{908fbf12-7cf7-4855-a0a4-84f38ab28d40,
abstract = {{This dissertation examines how actors in the Pacific produced, mobilized, and circulated oppositional knowledge about nuclear weapons testing from the 1950s to the early 2000s, with French Polynesia as its primary focus. At its core is witness activism: coordinated practices of testimony, document retrieval and annotation, archiving, publication, and transnational circulation through which activists contested state secrecy, scientific uncertainty, and colonial power. Witness activism is developed both as an analytical category and as a lens for understanding how non-state actors claimed epistemic authority under conditions of institutional opacity and contested expertise.<br/><br/>Methodologically, the study combines archival ethnography, testimony theory, and a critical-realist history of knowledge. It treats activist archives as dynamic sites of counter-agnotology, where alternative histories of nuclear colonialism and environmental harm were assembled and sustained. Empirically, it focuses on two transnational nodes, the Danielssons’ collections and the Obsarm network, tracing how situated knowledge was translated into metropolitan and international arenas, challenged dominant epidemiological frameworks and safety claims, and informed debates on recognition, compensation, and disarmament. The dissertation advances three interrelated claims. First, activist archives function as ongoing epistemic practices in which fragments of secrecy, testimony, and documentation are transformed into durable evidence. Second, witness activism shows how oppositional actors constructed epistemic authority by mobilizing documentary, scientific, and experiential knowledge to contest official narratives. Third, these practices reveal shifting repertoires of anti-testing epistemic labor, from documentarian and structural critique in the early 1970s to an increasing reliance on testimony in the 1980s and 1990s.<br/><br/>In this respect, the dissertation engages Didier Fassin’s argument on the rise of humanitarian reason. It shows that while testimony gained institutional authority in the 1990s, it did not emerge ex nihilo but was embedded in earlier oppositional epistemologies. The shift toward testimony thus marks a reconfiguration of epistemic authority, as witnessing came to mediate claims about harm, responsibility, and justice. By foregrounding these transformations, the study situates Pacific anti-nuclear activism within broader histories of decolonization, environmental justice, and human rights, and contributes to debates on how marginalized actors contest secrecy and produce credible knowledge under conditions of structural inequality.<br/><br/>}},
author = {{Öhman, Anton}},
isbn = {{978-91-90055-88-5}},
issn = {{1650-755X}},
keywords = {{Kärnvapen; Kalla kriget; Franska Polynesien; nukleär kolonialism; vittnande; aktivism; vittnesaktivism; epistemisk auktoritet; agnotologi; Kunskap; kunskapshistoria; kunskapsaktörer; kolonialism; Stilla havet; nuclear weapons; fallout; Cold War; Testimony and Witness; French Polynesia; Pacific Ocean; Pacific Islands; agnotology; oppositional knowledge; knowledge production; Nuclear weapons tests; archival ethnography; Witness activism; Colonialism; decolonization; disarmament; late 20th century; History of Knowledge; CEP; Moruroa; Poisoned Reign}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{05}},
number = {{40}},
publisher = {{Department of History, Lund university}},
school = {{Lund University}},
series = {{Studia Historica Lundensia}},
title = {{Knowing Nuclear Weapons Tests : Witness Activism and Oppositional Knowledge in the Cold War Colonial Pacific}},
url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/249384080/Anton_hman_-_avhandling.pdf}},
year = {{2026}},
}