Rhetorical Strategies of Legitimation in Groundwater District Public Hearings

• In Event: Forgive us: Organizational responses to wrongdoing and conflict

Abstract

In response to changing discourses about nuclear power, communities will make decisions about siting facilities that support the fuel cycle process. This paper analyzed the rhetorical strategies of actors in public hearings to consider how a small, local organization legitimizes its authority to protect groundwater from risks of uranium mining. The reciprocal relationship between the rhetorical strategies and societal discourses demonstrates how the processes of legitimation construct trust between the organization and the public.

Author

• Dorothy Collins, Texas A&M University