Egle Rindzeviciute
I am Associate Professor of Criminology and Sociology at Kingston University London, UK.
Before coming to Kingston, I did research and taught at Sciences Po in Paris (2012-2015), Gothenburg University (2009-2012) and Linkoping University (2003-2015) in Sweden.
I am a Visiting Research Fellow at the School of Public Administration and a Honorary Research Fellow at Gothenburg Research Institute, Gothenburg University, and an Associate Professor in Culture Studies (docent) at the Department for Studies of Social Change and Culture, Linkoping University, Sweden.
I am a member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) and an editorial board member of The International Journal of Cultural Policy.
My research interests involve the sociology of culture, particularly cultural policy, heritage and creative industries, and the sociology of knowledge with a particular focus on cybernetics and the systems approach and their sociopolitical impact on global governance.
My most recent book, "The Power of Systems", was published by Cornell University Press in 2016. My next book, "Predicting Russia", examines the role of anticipatory governance in the transformation of an authoritarian regime.
Before coming to Kingston, I did research and taught at Sciences Po in Paris (2012-2015), Gothenburg University (2009-2012) and Linkoping University (2003-2015) in Sweden.
I am a Visiting Research Fellow at the School of Public Administration and a Honorary Research Fellow at Gothenburg Research Institute, Gothenburg University, and an Associate Professor in Culture Studies (docent) at the Department for Studies of Social Change and Culture, Linkoping University, Sweden.
I am a member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) and an editorial board member of The International Journal of Cultural Policy.
My research interests involve the sociology of culture, particularly cultural policy, heritage and creative industries, and the sociology of knowledge with a particular focus on cybernetics and the systems approach and their sociopolitical impact on global governance.
My most recent book, "The Power of Systems", was published by Cornell University Press in 2016. My next book, "Predicting Russia", examines the role of anticipatory governance in the transformation of an authoritarian regime.
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Books by Egle Rindzeviciute
Her intellectual and political history of scientific prediction takes as its example twentieth-century USSR. By outlining the role of prediction in a range of governmental contexts, from economic and social planning to military strategy, she shows that the history of scientific prediction is a transnational one, part of the history of modern science and technology as well as governance. Going beyond the Soviet case, Rindzevičiūtė argues that scientific predictions are central for organizing uncertainty through the orchestration of knowledge and action. Bridging the fields of political sociology, organization studies, and history, The Will to Predict considers what makes knowledge scientific and how such knowledge has impacted late modern governance.
Papers by Egle Rindzeviciute
In this context, the cultural forms through which we make sense of inherited nuclear infrastructures, as well as the intergenerational transmission of material culture and knowledge, come to the fore. Local resident communities, nuclear industry veterans, anti-nuclear movements and amateur and professional historians of nuclear power have strong interest in documenting the nuclear past and preserving elements of its material culture. Communities exposed to radioactive contamination and land extraction seek restorative justice through cultural heritage action (Jurkonyte 2023; Jacobs 2022; Christopher Hill and Jonathan Hogg, ongoing; Rindzevičiūtė, Dovydaitytė, Kasperski, forthcoming). Additionally, national and international policy and industry bodies have begun to recognise the value of the cultural heritage approach for public engagement and safe decommissioning (for instance, German Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BASE), the Radiant Monuments conference organised by ICOMOS (2024); see also Brandt & Dame 2019; SKB 2019; Kärnavfallsrådet et al. 2019; NEA-OECD 2015; Gunn & Croft 2010; Cocroft 2006).
However, what constitutes nuclear cultural heritage and how it can benefit different social groups is unclear and contested. Nuclear decommissioning entails large and costly projects where the imperative is to deliver “value for money” by removing the radioactive and material structures in a speedy and efficient manner. There is a risk, therefore, that valuable tangible and intangible forms of nuclear cultural heritage will be lost and that social inequalities might be perpetuated in the process. In turn, the shrinking material basis of nuclear culture could have detrimental impact on reflexive democracy: as noted by the UK Department for Digital, Media, Culture and Sport (DCMS), “the additional value of culture lies in it being a site of contestation, reflecting the importance of disagreement and negotiation in diverse societies” (DCMS 2022).
To address these issues, the international research project Nuclear Spaces: Communities, Materialities and Locations of Nuclear Cultural Heritage (NuSPACES, 2021-2024) was set up to study the cultural heritage process in key national nuclear sites in the UK, Sweden and Lithuania. Although these sites have served different purposes and are located in different contexts, their nuclear reactors were shut down within about a decade: Dounreay in 1994, Barsebäck in 1999 and 2005, Sellafield in 2003, and Ignalina in 2004 and 2009. These developments significantly influenced local economies and communities.
research grant AH/S001301/1
Kingston University London, Concluding report
Author: Dr Eglė Rindzevičiūtė,
Kingston University London, UK
Kingston upon Thames, 2022
Splitting the Atom (splittingtheatom.cc) at the Contemporary
Art Centre (CAC), Vilnius
Since the dawn of the nuclear age in the 1940s, scientists
have been working on the development of power reactors –
fast reactors and slow; uranium, plutonium and thorium
fueled; with water and heavy (liquid) metal and other
coolants; compact and large; even mobile and portable. The
goal has been to generate thermal and electrical energy
safely and cheaply, or at least cheaply in comparison with
other power possibilities: coal, oil and gas; hydroelectricity;
wind and solar; and so on. But if the design of reactors relies
on cost and safety concerns, it also derives on such other,
often unspoken considerations as national engineering
culture and traditions and on what specialists may think the
public response will be to the deployment of massive power
reactors. The question of creating public trust in this new
technology – and maintaining it over 70 years of successes
and failures, power production and accidents – comes to the
fore.
https://artnews.lt/sodas-ir-kosmosas-apie-kuryba-ir-darbstumo-beprasmybe-pokalbis-su-agne-gintalaite-59741?fbclid=IwAR1ZrUDopJyOIUdiqSBc-DfYVVK9-QFbZxpXEWUImFAOmuS-OMN3ynRlJ-o
The opinions expressed in the document are not necessarily those of the authors’ employers.
Contributors:
Sam Alberti, National Museums Scotland
Will Bell, Sellafield Ltd
Robert Bud, Science Museum London
Ele Carpenter, Goldsmiths, University of London
Oliver Carpenter, Science Museum London
Wayne Cocroft, Historic England
Frank Dittman, Deutsches Museum
Philip Greatorex, Sellafield Ltd
James Gunn, Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd
Rodney Harrison, University College London
Jonathan Hogg, University of Liverpool
Sandra Kemp, Lancaster University
Susan Molyneux-Hodgson, Exeter University
Eglė Rindzevičiūtė, Kingston University London
Linda Ross, University of the Highlands and Islands
Anna Storm, Linkoping University
Aditi Verma, Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), OECD
Her intellectual and political history of scientific prediction takes as its example twentieth-century USSR. By outlining the role of prediction in a range of governmental contexts, from economic and social planning to military strategy, she shows that the history of scientific prediction is a transnational one, part of the history of modern science and technology as well as governance. Going beyond the Soviet case, Rindzevičiūtė argues that scientific predictions are central for organizing uncertainty through the orchestration of knowledge and action. Bridging the fields of political sociology, organization studies, and history, The Will to Predict considers what makes knowledge scientific and how such knowledge has impacted late modern governance.
In this context, the cultural forms through which we make sense of inherited nuclear infrastructures, as well as the intergenerational transmission of material culture and knowledge, come to the fore. Local resident communities, nuclear industry veterans, anti-nuclear movements and amateur and professional historians of nuclear power have strong interest in documenting the nuclear past and preserving elements of its material culture. Communities exposed to radioactive contamination and land extraction seek restorative justice through cultural heritage action (Jurkonyte 2023; Jacobs 2022; Christopher Hill and Jonathan Hogg, ongoing; Rindzevičiūtė, Dovydaitytė, Kasperski, forthcoming). Additionally, national and international policy and industry bodies have begun to recognise the value of the cultural heritage approach for public engagement and safe decommissioning (for instance, German Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BASE), the Radiant Monuments conference organised by ICOMOS (2024); see also Brandt & Dame 2019; SKB 2019; Kärnavfallsrådet et al. 2019; NEA-OECD 2015; Gunn & Croft 2010; Cocroft 2006).
However, what constitutes nuclear cultural heritage and how it can benefit different social groups is unclear and contested. Nuclear decommissioning entails large and costly projects where the imperative is to deliver “value for money” by removing the radioactive and material structures in a speedy and efficient manner. There is a risk, therefore, that valuable tangible and intangible forms of nuclear cultural heritage will be lost and that social inequalities might be perpetuated in the process. In turn, the shrinking material basis of nuclear culture could have detrimental impact on reflexive democracy: as noted by the UK Department for Digital, Media, Culture and Sport (DCMS), “the additional value of culture lies in it being a site of contestation, reflecting the importance of disagreement and negotiation in diverse societies” (DCMS 2022).
To address these issues, the international research project Nuclear Spaces: Communities, Materialities and Locations of Nuclear Cultural Heritage (NuSPACES, 2021-2024) was set up to study the cultural heritage process in key national nuclear sites in the UK, Sweden and Lithuania. Although these sites have served different purposes and are located in different contexts, their nuclear reactors were shut down within about a decade: Dounreay in 1994, Barsebäck in 1999 and 2005, Sellafield in 2003, and Ignalina in 2004 and 2009. These developments significantly influenced local economies and communities.
research grant AH/S001301/1
Kingston University London, Concluding report
Author: Dr Eglė Rindzevičiūtė,
Kingston University London, UK
Kingston upon Thames, 2022
Splitting the Atom (splittingtheatom.cc) at the Contemporary
Art Centre (CAC), Vilnius
Since the dawn of the nuclear age in the 1940s, scientists
have been working on the development of power reactors –
fast reactors and slow; uranium, plutonium and thorium
fueled; with water and heavy (liquid) metal and other
coolants; compact and large; even mobile and portable. The
goal has been to generate thermal and electrical energy
safely and cheaply, or at least cheaply in comparison with
other power possibilities: coal, oil and gas; hydroelectricity;
wind and solar; and so on. But if the design of reactors relies
on cost and safety concerns, it also derives on such other,
often unspoken considerations as national engineering
culture and traditions and on what specialists may think the
public response will be to the deployment of massive power
reactors. The question of creating public trust in this new
technology – and maintaining it over 70 years of successes
and failures, power production and accidents – comes to the
fore.
https://artnews.lt/sodas-ir-kosmosas-apie-kuryba-ir-darbstumo-beprasmybe-pokalbis-su-agne-gintalaite-59741?fbclid=IwAR1ZrUDopJyOIUdiqSBc-DfYVVK9-QFbZxpXEWUImFAOmuS-OMN3ynRlJ-o
The opinions expressed in the document are not necessarily those of the authors’ employers.
Contributors:
Sam Alberti, National Museums Scotland
Will Bell, Sellafield Ltd
Robert Bud, Science Museum London
Ele Carpenter, Goldsmiths, University of London
Oliver Carpenter, Science Museum London
Wayne Cocroft, Historic England
Frank Dittman, Deutsches Museum
Philip Greatorex, Sellafield Ltd
James Gunn, Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd
Rodney Harrison, University College London
Jonathan Hogg, University of Liverpool
Sandra Kemp, Lancaster University
Susan Molyneux-Hodgson, Exeter University
Eglė Rindzevičiūtė, Kingston University London
Linda Ross, University of the Highlands and Islands
Anna Storm, Linkoping University
Aditi Verma, Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), OECD
In Enrichment Boltanski and Esquerre seek to discern the process of value creation and profit accumulation in late capitalism, characterised by a drive to sell things to people who already have all the necessities they need. This form of capitalism does not replace the traditional serial industrial production, supplying high volumes of standardised goods at low prices, but is developed as an addition to it, as the industrial production of standardised goods has been delocalised to countries with a cheaper labour force. Having dislocated the workshop industries, the rich – or old industrial countries – have been developing a new mode of capitalist production, which is about creating ‘differences’ and discourses of value, used to justify premium prices in the market. This book explores the logic of such difference-making and forms of valuation.