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About this book
This book examines five rhetorical strategies used by the US coal industry to advance its interests in the face of growing economic and environmental pressures: industrial apocalyptic, corporate ventriloquism, technological shell game, hypocrite’s trap, and energy utopia. The authors argue that these strategies appeal to and reinforce neoliberalism, a discourse and set of practices that privilege market rationality and individual freedom and responsibility above all else. As the coal industry has become the leading target and leverage point for those seeking more aggressive action to mitigate climate change, their corporate advocacy may foreshadow rhetorical strategies available to other fossil fuel industries as they manage similar economic and cultural shifts. The authors’ analysis of coal’s corporate advocacy also identifies contradictions and points of vulnerability in the organized resistance to climate action as well as the larger ideological formation of neoliberalism.
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Keywords
- Apocalyptic rhetoric
- clean coal
- coal
- climate change communication
- climate change communication
- coal industry
- corporate advocacy
- corporate communication
- corporate rhetoric
- divestment
- energy
- energy policy
- energy poverty
- energy studies
- environmental communication
- fossil fuels
- neoliberalism
- war on coal
- Climate change management
- climate change
Table of contents (7 chapters)
Reviews
“This book is engagingly written. It is the result of a methodical and exhaustive research process and should represent an example of the best practice in scholarly inquiry. As for the content, it could be interesting for European audience, who are stressed not only by economic and environmental worries, but by a looming energy crisis.” (Violeta Stojičić, Language & Ecology, 2023)
“This volume addresses rhetorical strategies employed by the coal industry to resist regulatory efforts by the government and environmental groups. … This book is of interest not only to environmental communication scholars and students, but also to those studying integrated marketing communication approaches to advertising and public relations. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.” (J. H. Fritz, Choice, Vol. 54 (5), January, 2017)
Authors and Affiliations
About the authors
Pete Bsumek is Associate Professor in the School of Communication Studies at James Madison University, USA. His research and teaching focus on rhetoric, advocacy, and processes of decision-making, with a specific emphasis in environmental communication. He is the 2014 recipient of the J. Robert Cox Award in Environmental Communication and Civic Engagement.
Jennifer Peeples is Professor of Communication Studies at Utah State University, USA. Her area of research is environmental rhetoric with a focus on the discourse and images used in the construction of environmental controversies. She has won a number of awards for her research and is on the editorial board for Environmental Communication and the Quarterly Journal of Speech.
Jen Schneider is Associate Professor of Public Policy and Administration at Boise State University, USA. Her work examines the communication of scientific, technological, and environmental controversies. She is particularly interested in controversial or contested energy development and practices, such as hydrofracturing, coal mining, and nuclear power, and the role of rhetoric and expertise in defending such practices.
Steve Schwarze is Professor and Chair in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Montana, USA. His research examines the rhetoric of environmental controversies. His research appears in prominent outlets for rhetoric and environmental communication, such as the Quarterly Journal of Speech, Rhetoric & Public Affairs and Environmental Communication.
Jennifer Peeples is Professor of Communication Studies at Utah State University, USA. Her area of research is environmental rhetoric with a focus on the discourse and images used in the construction of environmental controversies. She has won a number of awards for her research and is on the editorial board for Environmental Communication and the Quarterly Journal of Speech.
Jen Schneider is Associate Professor of Public Policy and Administration at Boise State University, USA. Her work examines the communication of scientific, technological, and environmental controversies. She is particularly interested in controversial or contested energy development and practices, such as hydrofracturing, coal mining, and nuclear power, and the role of rhetoric and expertise in defending such practices.
Steve Schwarze is Professor and Chair in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Montana, USA. His research examines the rhetoric of environmental controversies. His research appears in prominent outlets for rhetoric and environmental communication, such as the Quarterly Journal of Speech, Rhetoric & Public Affairs and Environmental Communication.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Under Pressure
Book Subtitle: Coal Industry Rhetoric and Neoliberalism
Authors: Jen Schneider, Steve Schwarze, Peter K. Bsumek, Jennifer Peeples
Series Title: Palgrave Studies in Media and Environmental Communication
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53315-9
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-53314-2Published: 06 June 2016
eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-53315-9Published: 10 May 2016
Series ISSN: 2634-6451
Series E-ISSN: 2634-646X
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIII, 189
Number of Illustrations: 7 illustrations in colour
Topics: Media and Communication, Climate Change Management and Policy, Communication Studies, Climate Change, Energy Policy, Economics and Management, Corporate Communication/Public Relations