Reception of climate activist messages by low-carbon transition actors: argument evasion in the carbon offsetting debate. (4th May 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Üzelgün, Mehmet Ali; Fernandes-Jesus, Maria; Küçükural, Önder
• Is Part Of: Argumentation and advocacy. Volume 58:Number 2(2022)
• Page Start: 102
• Page End: 122
• Publication Date: 2022-05-04
• Subjects: Activist discourse -- argument reception -- frame contraction -- evasion strategies -- carbon offsetting; Forensics (Public speaking) -- Periodicals; Forensics (Public speaking); Periodicals; 808.5105
• DOI: 10.1080/10511431.2021.1971381
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0002-8533

Abstract

Abstract: How do adherents to hegemonic discourses construe and respond to radical arguments by activists? To address the question, we examined how adherents to hegemonic climate change discourses react to a climate activist's arguments. In interviews conducted with corporate actors of low-carbon transitions, we used a video excerpt to elicit critical reactions to an activist's argumentation on carbon offsetting. We used the critical reactions as an index of interviewees' reception of the activist's case and pragma-dialectical theory to analyze them. We found that interviewees advanced four types of criticism concerning individual agency, awareness-raising, neutralization, and financial instruments. We discuss their inter-relations and how interviewees construed the activist's argumentation in ways that evaded his more antagonistic claims.