For a familiar future: ‘Jobs’ and ‘net zero’ as performative markers of worldviews in England’s nuclear heartland

Abstract

This is a story of two recent energy-related initiatives in the Borough of Copeland, Cumbria, England’s nuclear heartland. In July 2020, a ‘clean energy hub’ was announced, to be located just north of Sellafield, a nuclear site rich in history and controversy. With Sellafield Limited moving into full decommissioning, Copeland heralded this new initiative as a potential ‘jobs bonanza’ for the area and proudly associated its nuclear-inspired underpinning with the UK’s 2050 net zero carbon emissions target. Six months later, another initiative made puzzled headlines in national and international media. A deep mining venture meant to produce coking coal for the steel industry, it has sparked amazement precisely over its lack of resonance with the net zero target. What the two projects have in common, however, is that both resonate with expectations for a familiar future where locals can count on well-paid, stable jobs. Drawing on my on-going ethnography of England’s nuclear heartland, on an experimental series of future-making workshops I co-organised, and on concepts developed in the anthropology of the future, I explore how ‘jobs’ and ‘net zero’ compete as performative markers of underlying worldviews.