To Frack or Not to Frack? The Interaction of Justification and Power in a Sustainability Controversy
研究了加拿大魁北克省页岩气勘探争议中，政府、公民社会和行业利益相关者如何运用正当性模式和权力形式影响压裂技术的道德合法性，并提出了正当化权力和权力正当化两种机制。
ABSTRACT How could a de facto moratorium on shale gas exploration emerge in Québec despite the broad adoption of fracking in North American jurisdictions, support from the provincial government and a favourable power position initially enjoyed by the oil and gas industry? This paper analyses this turn of events by studying how stakeholders from government, civil society, and industry mobilized modes of justification and forms of power with the aim to influence the moral legitimacy of the fracking technology during a controversy surrounding shale gas exploration. Combining Boltanski and Thévenot's economies of worth theory with Lukes’ concept of power, we analytically induced the justification of power mechanisms whereby uses of power become justified or ‘escape’ justification, and the power of justification mechanisms by which justifications alter subsequent power dynamics. We finally explain how these mechanisms contribute to explaining the controversy's ultimate outcome, and advance current debates on political corporate social responsibility.