Social Movement Communication as Democratic Innovation: The Alta Conflict 1970–1982

Abstract

How can lobbying and influence be useful not only for those who already are powerful, but also for the empowerment of the disempowered? Thus, how may we democratise control over the means of rhetorical power? An answer may be found in rare cases of social movement communication impacting constitutional reform, such as the Alta Dam Conflict, 1970–1982, from an area where the Norwegian state overlaps with the Sápmi homeland. Social movement communication as democratic innovation is a research topic scattered between social movement studies (SMS) and strategic communication research (SCR). This chapter integrates both perspectives, firstly, (a) by identifying one shared approach, “empirically grounded Critical Theory”; and secondly, (b) by applying the empirical method typical to that approach, namely “comparative historical analysis”; and thirdly (c) by suggesting some empirically grounded amendments to existing theoretical concepts on social movement communication as democratic innovation.