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"How social media has become a critical tool for advancing the interests of the Canadian oil industry Petroturfing presents an incisive look into how Canada's pro-oil movement has leveraged social media to rebrand the extractive economy as a positive force. Adapting its title from the concept of astroturfing, which refers to the practice of disguising political and corporate media campaigns as grassroots movements, the book exposes the consequences of this mutually informed relationship between social media and environmental politics. Since the early 2010s, an increasingly influential network of pro-oil groups, organizations, and campaigns has harnessed social media strategies originally developed by independent environmental organizations in order to undermine resistance to the fossil fuel industry. Situating these actions within the broader oil culture wars that have developed as an outgrowth of contemporary right-wing media, Petroturfing details how this coalition of groups is working to reform the public view of oil extraction as something socially, economically, and ecologically beneficial. By uncovering these concerted efforts to influence the "energy consciousness," Jordan B. Kinder reveals the deep divide between Canada's environmentally progressive reputation and the economic interests of its layers of government and private companies operating within its borders. Drawing attention to the structures underlying online political expression, Petroturfing highlights the limitations of social media networks in the work of promoting environmental justice and contributing to a more equitable future. "--
List of contents
Contents
Introduction
1. From Dirty to Ethical: Igniting the Oil Culture Wars
2. Petroculture’s Promise: Oil Executive Epistemologies and the Economic Imaginary
3. Resource Hetero- and Homonationalism: The Petrosexual Imaginary
4. Reconciling Extraction: The Settler Colonial Imaginary
5. Sustaining Petrocultures: Extractive Landscapes, Forces of Production, and the Postenvironmentalist
Imaginary
6. From the Highway to the Legislature: Fossil Fascist Creep
Conclusion: Exiting the Trenches of the Oil Culture Wars
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
About the author
Jordan B. Kinder is assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University.
