Image Politics: The New Rhetoric of Environmental Activism

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Special Focus Collections

This exceptional volume examines “image events” as a rhetorical tactic utilized by environmental activists. Author Kevin Michael DeLuca analyzes widely televised environmentalist actions in depth to illustrate how the image event fulfills fundamental rhetorical functions in constructing and transforming identities, discourses, communities, cultures, and world views. Image Politics also exhibits how such events create opportunities for a politics that does not rely on centralized leadership or universal metanarratives. The book presents a rhetoric of the visual for our mediated age as it illuminates new political possibilities currently enacted by radical environmental groups. Between the radical, creative capacity of our imagination and the social imaginary we are immersed in is an intermediate space philosophers have termed the imaginal, populated by images or (re)presentations that are presences in themselves. Offering a new, systematic understanding of the imaginal and its nexus with the political, Chiara Bottici brings fresh perspective to the formation of political and power relationships and the paradox of a world rich in imagery yet seemingly devoid of imagination.

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This is a problem, because images tap into a fundamental element of human reasoning. They have a resonant power to stir strong emotions – of fear, dislike, love, hate, and everything in between. Widely shared footage of the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi led to the first protests in Tunisia and the eventual fall of the Ben Ali regime. U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the White House in February 2017. Images tap into attitudes, but not always in the same way for every viewer. Human culture is a visual culture. From cave paintings to selfies, we have always used images to tell stories about our lives, experiences and understanding of the world.

Solomon, T. 2014. The affective underpinnings of soft power. European Journal of International Relations 20 (3): 720–741. Images tap into attitudes, but not always in the same way for every viewer. Instead, an image’s perceived level of influence is based on “believability.” This is the idea that it is true if we agree, fake if we disagree. And it is here that the power of images intersects with the great challenge of the digital age.

About the Author

It was after taking a filmmaking class himself, while working at Manchester University several years ago, that Professor Callahan first became interested in making short films. Although he had studied visual politics since his early career, he hadn’t previously worked on the other side of the camera. Chambers, M. 2015. VW scandal threatens “Made in Germany” image. Reuters 22 September, http://www.reuters.com/article/usa-volkswagen-germany-image-idUSL5N11S38X20150922 (25 September 2015).