4 Entry into Resilience and Time
Time is “huge and complex” [46]. Classically, it is approached from three angles:
chronology (a sequence of events that follow one another), simultaneity (events that
occur at the same time) and duration (a measurable period). Typically, a linear and
cumulative concept is contrasted with one that takes into account multiple, discontinuous temporalities. For example, [47] summarizes it as, “rather than simulate
a linear story that is ‘in progress’, priority should be given to these flashbacks, these
evil blows, these lightweight catastrophes that perturb an empire much better than
major upheavals. Give priority to non-linearity, reversibility, everything that relates,
not to an unfolding or an evolution, but a winding game, a reversion in time.
Anastrophe versus catastrophe. (…). Everything happens in loops, in tropes, in
reversals of direction”. The challenge is to know how to manage these various
feedback loops, “the analyzed object’s victorious ruse” [48] especially within a
system in crisis.
The concept of crisis can be defined as a runaway phenomenon, the translation
of an acceleration, or a loss of control. Entry into resilience aims to halt this
phenomenon using a more powerful natural or artificial mechanism, which will
initially slow it down and then stop it [49]. More specifically, in the case of an
extreme situation the focus is less on a search for the causes of this runaway
phenomenon, than to understand the “delirium of forms and appearances”, this
“endless cycle of metamorphoses” where everything “explodes into connections”. It
could be said that entry into resilience helps to “slow down, stop at certain points
this total correlation of events” [48]. It is therefore essential to have feedback loops
[50] that act retroactively on the source. From this perspective, entry into resiliency
can be seen as an attempt to create a return to the origin of the crisis so that the
system can be brought back under control and become more fluid.
The challenge is therefore to find the right tempo
4 that allows the technical
objects
5 [51] in the system sufficient time to independently enter into resilience.
This tempo is punctuated by ‘phases’ that have a role to play, but “by phase, we do
not mean a moment in time that is replaced by another”. It is more accurate to say
that “in a system there are phases when reciprocal tensions are in equilibrium; the
current system composed of all phases taken together is that the full reality, not each
phase taken by itself, a phase is only a phase when compared to another. (…).
Finally, the existence of a plurality of phases defines a neutral, balanced center,
which provides the conditions for the existence of the diphase” [52]. An overall
harmony with respect to time management must therefore emerge. In the time
management context, it is in the relaxation phases where minor or major factors are
4
Here, the concept of tempo is not limited to the speed of execution but the pace at which a set of
actions unfolds.
5
“The configuration of technical objects specifies a certain division between the physical and social
world, assigns roles to certain types of actors—human and nonhuman—and thereby excludes
others, permits certain modes of relationship between these actors, etc.” (p. 49).
The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident: Entering …
7
Time is “huge and complex” [46]. Classically, it is approached from three angles:
chronology (a sequence of events that follow one another), simultaneity (events that
occur at the same time) and duration (a measurable period). Typically, a linear and
cumulative concept is contrasted with one that takes into account multiple, discontinuous temporalities. For example, [47] summarizes it as, “rather than simulate
a linear story that is ‘in progress’, priority should be given to these flashbacks, these
evil blows, these lightweight catastrophes that perturb an empire much better than
major upheavals. Give priority to non-linearity, reversibility, everything that relates,
not to an unfolding or an evolution, but a winding game, a reversion in time.
Anastrophe versus catastrophe. (…). Everything happens in loops, in tropes, in
reversals of direction”. The challenge is to know how to manage these various
feedback loops, “the analyzed object’s victorious ruse” [48] especially within a
system in crisis.
The concept of crisis can be defined as a runaway phenomenon, the translation
of an acceleration, or a loss of control. Entry into resilience aims to halt this
phenomenon using a more powerful natural or artificial mechanism, which will
initially slow it down and then stop it [49]. More specifically, in the case of an
extreme situation the focus is less on a search for the causes of this runaway
phenomenon, than to understand the “delirium of forms and appearances”, this
“endless cycle of metamorphoses” where everything “explodes into connections”. It
could be said that entry into resilience helps to “slow down, stop at certain points
this total correlation of events” [48]. It is therefore essential to have feedback loops
[50] that act retroactively on the source. From this perspective, entry into resiliency
can be seen as an attempt to create a return to the origin of the crisis so that the
system can be brought back under control and become more fluid.
The challenge is therefore to find the right tempo
4 that allows the technical
objects
5 [51] in the system sufficient time to independently enter into resilience.
This tempo is punctuated by ‘phases’ that have a role to play, but “by phase, we do
not mean a moment in time that is replaced by another”. It is more accurate to say
that “in a system there are phases when reciprocal tensions are in equilibrium; the
current system composed of all phases taken together is that the full reality, not each
phase taken by itself, a phase is only a phase when compared to another. (…).
Finally, the existence of a plurality of phases defines a neutral, balanced center,
which provides the conditions for the existence of the diphase” [52]. An overall
harmony with respect to time management must therefore emerge. In the time
management context, it is in the relaxation phases where minor or major factors are
4
Here, the concept of tempo is not limited to the speed of execution but the pace at which a set of
actions unfolds.
5
“The configuration of technical objects specifies a certain division between the physical and social
world, assigns roles to certain types of actors—human and nonhuman—and thereby excludes
others, permits certain modes of relationship between these actors, etc.” (p. 49).
The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident: Entering …
7