BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//events.la.psu.edu//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20201101T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=11;BYDAY=1SU END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20200308T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=2SU END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:10877-fd24a7b3e1316c2238413d147539b35a@events.la.psu.edu DTSTAMP:20260503T021425Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240320T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240320T130000 SUMMARY:Sociology Colloquium Speaker Series: Ed Walker DESCRIPTION:\nTitle: “Boosting Your Enemies to Garner the Sympathy of Fr iends: Evidence from Communications by Pro-Fracking Industry Groups in t he Marcellus Shale”\n\nDescription:\n\nScholarship has recognized that c ontention shapes impression management efforts by business actors but ha s largely ignored how geographic factors affect industry-level responses and how industry groups may seek advantage based on protests they face. This is consequential: against intuition\, industry groups may respond more robustly to distant challenges than to ones proximate to their infr astructure\, hoping to use this to their benefit. They do this because d istant challenges can be framed as coming from “outsiders” making not-in -your-backyard claims\, against claimed support in proximate communities . Using structural topic models\, we examine daily communications by two major industry groups supporting hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) in t he Marcellus Shale (Pennsylvania\, New York\, Ohio\, West Virginia) betw een 2009 and 2019: one more transgressive\, one more conventional. We ex amine how their communications shifted after antifracking contention (pr otests and bans). We find that they respond only to non-proximate conten tion: the transgressive group boosts distant opponents intending to prov oke their supporters\, while the conventional group highlights economic benefits. Further\, reflecting political partisanship\, both association s respond only to non-proximate contention emerging from politically lib eral areas\, ignoring similar contention in conservative areas. We discu ss implications for theories of social movements\, organizations\, and e nvironmental sociology.\n\nFor more details: https://events.la.psu.edu/e vent/sociology-ed-walker/ X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

Title: “Boostin g Your Enemies to Garner the Sympathy of Friends: Evidence from Communic ations by Pro-Fracking Industry Groups in the Marcellus Shale”

Des cription:
Scholarship has recognized that contention shapes impress ion management efforts by business actors but has largely ignored how ge ographic factors affect industry-level responses and how industry groups may seek advantage based on protests they face. This is consequential: against intuition, industry groups may respond more robustly to distant challenges than to ones proximate to their infrastructure, hoping to use this to their benefit. They do this because distant challenges can be f ramed as coming from “outsiders” making not-in-your-backyard claims, aga inst claimed support in proximate communities. Using structural topic mo dels, we examine daily communications by two major industry groups suppo rting hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) in the Marcellus Shale (Pennsylv ania, New York, Ohio, West Virginia) between 2009 and 2019: one more tra nsgressive, one more conventional. We examine how their communications s hifted after antifracking contention (protests and bans). We find that t hey respond only to non-proximate contention: the transgressive group bo osts distant opponents intending to provoke their supporters, while the conventional group highlights economic benefits. Further, reflecting pol itical partisanship, both associations respond only to non-proximate con tention emerging from politically liberal areas, ignoring similar conten tion in conservative areas. We discuss implications for theories of soci al movements, organizations, and environmental sociology.

For more details: https://events.la.psu.edu/event/sociology-ed-walker/

LOCATION:406 Oswald Tower END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR