Chapter 5. Legitimation in contested industries
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Paola Catenaccio
Abstract
In order to be permitted to carry out their operations, companies need to be perceived as legitimate. Legitimacy is awarded as a result of a deliberation process whereby the members of a society come to agree that a company’s operations can be considered beneficial (or at least not harmful) both in principle and in practice. For companies operating in contested industries, such as mining and agri-biotechnologies, gaining, and maintaining, a ‘social licence’ to operate can be problematic, and requires extensive engagement in discursively mediated legitimation practices of an argumentative nature. This chapter seeks to identify the prototypical argumentative patterns deployed in these industries in the service of corporate legitimation, concluding that they rely on varieties of pragmatic argumentation based on strong sustainability-framed objects of agreement to which are applied inferential processes ultimately resting on the locus from final/instrumental cause.
Abstract
In order to be permitted to carry out their operations, companies need to be perceived as legitimate. Legitimacy is awarded as a result of a deliberation process whereby the members of a society come to agree that a company’s operations can be considered beneficial (or at least not harmful) both in principle and in practice. For companies operating in contested industries, such as mining and agri-biotechnologies, gaining, and maintaining, a ‘social licence’ to operate can be problematic, and requires extensive engagement in discursively mediated legitimation practices of an argumentative nature. This chapter seeks to identify the prototypical argumentative patterns deployed in these industries in the service of corporate legitimation, concluding that they rely on varieties of pragmatic argumentation based on strong sustainability-framed objects of agreement to which are applied inferential processes ultimately resting on the locus from final/instrumental cause.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of figures vii
- List of tables ix
- Introduction. Genres and persuasion 1
- Chapter 1. Plural conversations about argumentation 24
- Chapter 2. Establishing starting points in Editorials 46
- Chapter 3. Arguments and framing strategies in Italian public discourse about measures to contrast the Covid-19 pandemic 71
- Chapter 4. Press releases of COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers 92
- Chapter 5. Legitimation in contested industries 111
- Chapter 6. Argumentative style in international adoption dossiers 134
- Chapter 7. Persuasion and critical-theoretical thought 153
- Chapter 8. Argumentation and the “interaction of minds” in text 169
- Chapter 9. Argumentation in scientific discourse 189
- Chapter 10. Teaching to manage implicit linguistic meanings 211
- Chapter 11. Bentham on rhetoric 232
- Chapter 12. Engaging conspiracy theories 248
- Index 265
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of figures vii
- List of tables ix
- Introduction. Genres and persuasion 1
- Chapter 1. Plural conversations about argumentation 24
- Chapter 2. Establishing starting points in Editorials 46
- Chapter 3. Arguments and framing strategies in Italian public discourse about measures to contrast the Covid-19 pandemic 71
- Chapter 4. Press releases of COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers 92
- Chapter 5. Legitimation in contested industries 111
- Chapter 6. Argumentative style in international adoption dossiers 134
- Chapter 7. Persuasion and critical-theoretical thought 153
- Chapter 8. Argumentation and the “interaction of minds” in text 169
- Chapter 9. Argumentation in scientific discourse 189
- Chapter 10. Teaching to manage implicit linguistic meanings 211
- Chapter 11. Bentham on rhetoric 232
- Chapter 12. Engaging conspiracy theories 248
- Index 265
