The Stories (Un)told in Emerging Fields: Legitimation Dynamics around Shale Gas Exploitation (WITHDRAWN)

Abstract

This article will conceptualize the political struggles of the emerging and contested field around the issue of shale gas exploitation in Europe as being embedded in a web of strategic action fields on national and transnational levels. In line with this year’s overall AOM theme “The Power of Words” it adopts a discursive perspective and seeks to embed discursive legitimation strategies into their wider field dynamics. Preliminary findings suggest that the transnational embeddedness of actors and arguments influence legitimation strategies and field structure. This refines our understanding of legitimation dynamics as the attribution of threat at the local level in one field may serve the seizing of an opportunity on the global level in another field. In addition, actors respond to global pressures but may mobilize discursive power by adapting their discourses to local contexts. Furthermore, proponents are found to generally adopt an issue containment strategy, while opponents adopt an issue expansion strategy.