Reconstituting 'America': The Clean Energy Economy Ventriloquized

摘要

With the foregrounding of "clean energy" policies by climate change concerns, the rhetorical constitution of "America" as a collective subject, mobilized to adopt the clean energy economy (CEE), becomes crucial. Here, I analyze the constitutive rhetoric of Pew Charitable Trusts' landmark 2009 report on the CEE, drawing from the ventriloqual perspective to communication. I argue that this approach provides a more pragmatic, conversational understanding of the interpellative process constituting "America," noting it to be hybridized and composed of various human and nonhuman agents. Tracing the ingoing interaction among agents-some manifest in the text, others spectral-sheds light on the complex relations of power at stake, recognizes the open-ended possibilities (and restrictions) of agency, and the role of material structures shaping environmental communication and policy.