Peak oil and climate change in a rural Alaskan community
A sketch of a nexus analysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.v6i3.357Keywords:
nexus of practice, nexus analysis, social change, activist sociolinguistics, global warming, community actionAbstract
Peak oil and global warming have both been vilified and then vindicated. When the small community of Haines, Alaska, dependent for food, fuel and social services on the increasingly less viable fossil fuel economy, began noticing deficits in early 2007, its Borough Assembly engaged the volunteer Haines Energy Task Force to research and make recommendations on alternative energy sources for heating and transportation, local food production and harvesting of subsistence resources, social services and economic change. As a long-term resident and property owner, I found myself in a zone of identification (Burke 1950) as part of a nexus of practice (NOP) of citizens thinking about the future of reduced and alternative energy consumption and taking action toward bringing about the envisioned future. As part of this NOP, my analysis constituted social action by transforming the NOP in engaging the NOP, the opening move in a nexus analysis (Scollon and Scollon 2004: 9). This paper is an account of the ways and extent to which the task force was able to bring about change in the community. It is not a nexus analysis as such but a summary report.
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Scollon, R. and Scollon, S. W. (2009) Breakthrough into action. Special Issue of Text & Talk 29 (3): 277–294. doi:10.1515/TEXT.2009.015
Scollon, S. (2001) Habitus, consciousness, agency and the problem of intention: how we carry and are carried by political discourses. Folia Linguistica: Acta societatis linguisticae Europaeae XXXV (1–2): 97–129.
Scollon, S. (2003) Political and somatic alignment: habitus, ideology and social practice. In R. Wodak and G. Weiss (eds) Critical Discourse Analysis: Theory and Interdisciplinarity, 167–198. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Scollon, S. (2003a) Body idiom in platform events: media representation and the hegemony of the vicarious conversation. Social Semiotics 13 (1): 89–102. doi:10.1080/ 1035033032000133526
Scollon, S. (2005) Agency distributed through time, space and tools. In S. Norris and R. H. Jones (eds) Discourse in Action: Introducing Mediated Discourse Analysis, 172–182. Abingdon: Routledge.
Scollon, S. and Scollon, R. (2000) The construction of agency and action in anticipatory discourse: Positioning ourselves against neo-liberalism. Paper presented at III Conference for Sociocultural Research, UNICAMP, Campinas, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 16–20 July.
Townsend, M. and Harris, P. (2004) Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us. The Observer. 22 February. http://www.world-crisis.com/analysis
Yarow, J. (2009) Greenpeace says oil companies are screwed (RDSA, BP) The Business Insider Greensheet. 27 July. Retrieved 31 July from http://www.businessinsider.com/ greenpeace-says-oil-companies-are-screwed-2009-7
Burke, K. (1950) A Rhetoric of Motives. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Burke, K. (1965[1935]) Permanence and Change: An Anatomy of Purpose. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill.
Burke, K. (1969 [1945]) A Grammar of Motives. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (2007) Office of the Actuary. National Health Statistics Group. http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NationalHealthExpendData/downloads/ PieChartSourcesExpenditures2007.pdf Retrieved on 31 July 2009.
Chilkoot Watershed Coalition. http://akmk.com/chilkoot
City of Portland Peak Oil Task Force (2007) Descending the Oil Peak: Navigating the Transition from Oil and Gas. March.
Duncan, R. C. (2005) The Olduvai theory: energy, population and industrial civilization. The Social Contract, Winter 2005–2006.
Edwards, J. (2008) Assembly spars over job to conserve energy. Chilkat Valley News http:// www.chilkatvalleynews.com/archive/2008-22-2.html
Goffman, E. (1961) Behavior in Public Places: Notes on the Social Organization of Gatherings. New York: Free Press.
Haines Borough Energy Sustainability Commission. http://www.hnsboroesc. outlierproductions.com/index.htm
Haines Gardeners and Farmers (2008) Community supported agriculture (CSA): a possibility in Haines? 18 February. http://hainesgardenersfarmers.blogspot.com/2008/02/ community-supported-agriculture-csa.html
Hansen, J. (2008) Dr James Hansen calls for fossil industry disinformants to be tried for ‘high crimes’. Climate Science Watch, 25 June. http://www.climatesciencewatch.org/ index.php/csw/details/hansen_high_crimes/
Heinberg, R. (2009) Peak oil day. http://www.postcarbon.org/peak-oil-day. 3 July. Retrieved on 28 July 2009.
Hirsch, R. L. Bezdek, R. and Wendling, R. (2005) Peaking of World Oil Production: Impacts, Mitigation and Risk Management. US Department of Energy. Retrieved on 6 May 2009 from http://www.energybulletin.net/primer
Howden, D. (2007) World oil supplies set to run out faster than expected, warn scientists. The Independent, 14 June. Retrieved on 15 June 2007 from http://www.commondreams. org/archive/2007/06/14/1874/
Klare, M. (2007) The pentagon v. peak oil: how wars of the future may be fought just to run the machines that run them. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/06/15/1905/ Retrieved on 15 June 2007.
Krugman, P. (2009) Betraying the planet. New York Times, 28 June. http://www.nytimes. com/2009/06/29/opinion/29krugman.html?_r=2 Retrieved on 29 July.
Lovins, A. (2004) Winning the Oil Endgame. Snowmass, CO: Rocky Mountain Institute.
Lucas, C. (2007) Fueling a food crisis. Published on 3 January 2007 by carolinelucasmep. org.uk. Archived on 3 January 2007.
Macalister, T. (2009) Key oil figures were distorted by US pressure, says whistleblower. Guardian. Monday 9 November.
Monbiot, G. (2009a) How much should we leave in the ground? The Guardian, 6 May. Retrieved on 31 July 2009 from http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2009/05/06/howmuch-should-we-leave-in-the-ground/
Monbiot, G. (2009b) Climate change displacement has begun – but hardly anyone has noticed: The first evacuation of an entire community due to manmade global warming is happening on the Carteret Islands. The Guardian, 8 May. http://www.guardian.co.uk/ environment/georgemonbiot/2009/may/07/monbiot-climate-change-evacuation
Pan, Y. L. and Scollon, S. (2004) Opening the circumference of census taking: A nexus analysis. Presented at the Annual Conference of the American Association of Applied Linguistics, Portland, OR, 1–4 May 2004.
Petersen, A. (2009) New school using more electric than previous 3 buildings. Chilkat Valley News. http://www.chilkatvalleynews.com/archive/2009-08-2.html
Piltz, R. (2008) The denial machine. Index on Censorship. Uploaded at http://www. climatesciencewatch.org/index.php/csw/details/denial_machine_index_on_censorship/
Scollon, R. (2008) Analyzing Public Discourse: Discourse Analysis in the Making of Public Policy. London: Routledge.
Scollon, R. and Scollon, S. W. (2003) Discourses in Place: Language in the Material World. London: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203422724
Scollon, R. and Scollon, S. W. (2004) Nexus Analysis: Discourse and the Emerging Internet. London: Routledge.
Scollon, R. and Scollon, S. W. (2009) Breakthrough into action. Special Issue of Text & Talk 29 (3): 277–294. doi:10.1515/TEXT.2009.015
Scollon, S. (2001) Habitus, consciousness, agency and the problem of intention: how we carry and are carried by political discourses. Folia Linguistica: Acta societatis linguisticae Europaeae XXXV (1–2): 97–129.
Scollon, S. (2003) Political and somatic alignment: habitus, ideology and social practice. In R. Wodak and G. Weiss (eds) Critical Discourse Analysis: Theory and Interdisciplinarity, 167–198. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Scollon, S. (2003a) Body idiom in platform events: media representation and the hegemony of the vicarious conversation. Social Semiotics 13 (1): 89–102. doi:10.1080/ 1035033032000133526
Scollon, S. (2005) Agency distributed through time, space and tools. In S. Norris and R. H. Jones (eds) Discourse in Action: Introducing Mediated Discourse Analysis, 172–182. Abingdon: Routledge.
Scollon, S. and Scollon, R. (2000) The construction of agency and action in anticipatory discourse: Positioning ourselves against neo-liberalism. Paper presented at III Conference for Sociocultural Research, UNICAMP, Campinas, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 16–20 July.
Townsend, M. and Harris, P. (2004) Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us. The Observer. 22 February. http://www.world-crisis.com/analysis
Yarow, J. (2009) Greenpeace says oil companies are screwed (RDSA, BP) The Business Insider Greensheet. 27 July. Retrieved 31 July from http://www.businessinsider.com/ greenpeace-says-oil-companies-are-screwed-2009-7
Published
2015-09-14
Issue
Section
Articles
License
Equinox Publishing Ltd.
How to Cite
Scollon, S. W. (2015). Peak oil and climate change in a rural Alaskan community : A sketch of a nexus analysis. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice, 6(3), 357-378. https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.v6i3.357
