Translocal anti-fracking activism: an exploration of network structure and tie content

ABSTRACT

In order to develop conceptual models that reflect the realities of networked communicative processes scholars must examine both the underlying network structure and the content of these ties. Using mixed methods, I apply a relational perspective to the role of digital technologies in transnational organizing, using activism against high-volume hydraulic fracturing as a case study. In-depth interviews are combined with social network analysis of hyper-linkages between organizations supporting a day of action calling for a ban on fracking, Global Frackdown. Analysis shows that activism against unconventional fossil fuels brings together very localized concerns about environmental risks associated with extractive industries with more abstract global concerns. I apply the concept of translocal to examine environmental organizations and movements. This conceptual shift focuses on the brokerage role of global-minded local groups in mediating global issues back to the hyper-local scale. While international NGOs play a coordinating role, local groups with a global worldview can connect transnational movements to the hyper-local scale by networking with groups that are too small to appear in a transnational network.

KEYWORDS:

• Transnational environmental movements
• shale gas
• fracking
• social network analysis
• digital methods
• hyperlocal
• Sweden

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the anonymous reviewers, the editors, and Patricia Loew, Hernando Rojas, Pam Oliver, Erica Halverson and Larry Meiller for helpful feedback on earlier drafts.

Notes

1. There are important regulatory differences between the United States and European countries when it comes to the oil and natural gas industry. Unlike the United States where individual property owners often hold mineral rights, internationally it is more common that these rights are owned by the state. This diminishes financial incentives for landowners to agree to the siting of wells on their land. Public opinion research has shown that among the 27 member states of the European Union, 74% of survey respondents would be concerned about shale gas development in their neighborhood (Flash Eurobarometer 360, 2013).

2. A listing of the seed list URLs is available from the researcher.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported through a University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Louis and Elsa Thomsen Wisconsin Distinguished Graduate Fellowship, as well as research travel grants from the Robert F. and Jean E. Holtz Center for Science and Technology Studies and the European Union Center of Excellence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.