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19 - Speech Is Silver, Silence Is Gold in the Fracking Zone

from Part V - Resources

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2020

By
Debra J. Davidson
Edited by
Katharine Legun ,
Julie C. Keller ,
Michael Carolan  and
Michael M. Bell
Katharine Legun
Affiliation:
Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands
Julie C. Keller
Affiliation:
University of Rhode Island
Michael Carolan
Affiliation:
Colorado State University
Michael M. Bell
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Madison
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Summary

This chapter discusses the critical role of discourse in politics, highlighting the benefits to development advocates that accrue when the voices of concerned citizens are silenced. Seeking consent for industrial development has always been a game of claimsmaking, involving what Sheila Jasanoff refers to as “sociotechnical imaginaries” designed to solicit endorsement for particular development pathways. But behind the curtain of overt claimsmaking lay efforts to keep certain claims out of the limelight, when those claims may be perceived as particularly threatening to development. Davidson explores the manifold strategies employed by development advocates to silence concerned rural residents in southern Alberta, where natural gas reserves are being extracted through hydraulic fracturing, a technique associated with a host of environmental, climate, and health risks.

Keywords

Political discourseclaimsmakingsociotechnical imaginarieshydraulic fracturingAlberta
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Sociology , pp. 324 - 341
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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