An Emotional Landscape of Place-based Activism: Exploring the Dynamics of Place and Emotion in Antifracking Actions
Published online on September 29, 2016
Abstract
We coconstruct a series of autoethnographic reflections to offer analysis of the emotions involved in early social movement mobilization. Oil and gas extraction and production are deeply embedded in Oklahoma’s economic, political, social, and cultural milieu. Using Woods et al.’s ladder of emotions model, we consider the constraints faced by three different proenvironmental/antifracking activists in Oklahoma within the context of place-based activism. Emotion and place-based identities are central to the early stages and continuance of social movement organization. We call for greater attention to these dynamics and further study of the role of emotions in the emergence, ascendance, and abeyance of social movement activity.