The “Dark Side” of the EMP?

This chapter addresses several issues, with the aim of refining and reorienting the debate about the nuclear hardship hypothesis. Several indicators show that the primacy of the European nuclear household did not lead to more hardship; in fact, the evidence points in the contrary direction. Nor would it be fair to claim that this outcome is entirely due to top-down provisions, and in particular charity. The authors stress the institutional diversity of solutions for hardship, and focus on one particular group in society, the elderly. They demonstrate that the elderly had more “agency” than usually expected and that a combination of institutional arrangements, besides the top-down provisions, in which the elderly participated actively offered more resilience so as to deal with “hardship.”