ABSTRACT
We begin this chapter with a case study of the Brent Spar affair. Shell’s plan to dump an obsolete oil platform into the deep sea provoked interference by the environmental organization, Greenpeace. The protests succeeded in mobilizing social resistance. It is an example of phenomena that have to do with collective expressions of outrage and hostility. We may also note them in moral panics, political scandals, economic boycotts, and other forms. It is hard to measure, predict, and control whether they will catch on, when and where. But once they cross a certain critical threshold, they seem to follow some kind of inherent logic; for example, polarization, escalation, and a conflict spiral of action and reaction-that proves extremely difficult to break out of. In this context, we look at the notion of “attractors”: pathways and states to which the evolution of a system tends under certain precise conditions.
