The analogical construction of stigma as a moral dualism: the case of the fossil fuel divestment movement

Ferns, George ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4517-7873, Lambert, Aliette and Gunther, Maik 2022. The analogical construction of stigma as a moral dualism: the case of the fossil fuel divestment movement. Academy of Management Journal 65 (4) , pp. 1383-1415. 10.5465/amj.2018.0615

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

We explore the global fossil fuel divestment movement to show how climate activists worked to stigmatize the fossil fuel industry using analogy. In doing so, we develop a model that illustrates how constructing a “moral dualism” is central to stigmatizing an organizational category. This involves concurrently establishing “stigmatizers” (ingroup) as morally superior and amplifying the deviancy of the fossil fuel industry (outgroup), both in relation to analogical contexts. Stigmatizers strategically employed two types of analogy: “deep” and “surface.” Deep analogies produce emotive power, facilitating the moralization of the ingroup through the transfer of affective meanings from a source context to a target domain. Surface analogies generate causal power to inform wider audiences of the target’s deviance through association with already-stigmatized organizational categories. Analogical power underpinning the morally dualistic nature of stigmatization can therefore empower fringe actors to stigmatize an incumbent as they appropriate meanings from analogical source domains.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Business (Including Economics)
Publisher:	Academy of Management
ISSN:	0001-4273
Date of Acceptance:	20 March 2021
Last Modified:	06 May 2023 01:24
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/140297

Citation Data

Cited 5 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item