Back to Search Start Over

Generating power in Taiwan: Nuclear, political and religious power

Authors :
Fang-Long Shih
Source :
Culture and Religion. 13:295-313
Publication Year :
2012
Publisher :
Informa UK Limited, 2012.

Abstract

This paper addresses how religion is playing an increasingly important role in empowering anti-nuclear protests at Gongliao in Taiwan. It begins by describing how the anti-nuclear movement in Taiwan was originally dependant on the opposition political party, and then examines how growing disaffection with party politics at Gongliao has resulted in a local temple dedicated to the goddess Mazu coming to the forefront of the struggle. This paper frames the dispute as a struggle between three different ways of generating power (and implicitly, of losing power): first, the generation of nuclear power by bureaucrats and scientists working through the industrial sector; second, the generation of political power by opposition politicians and elite campaigners; and third, the generation of religious power by people rooted in local communities, creating an alliance between religious power and secular protest.

Details

ISSN :
14755629 and 14755610
Volume :
13
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Culture and Religion
Accession number :
edsair.doi...........679749b01f56f98fbf69b2413ea08de0