Locking the gate: citizens communicating with power in rural Australia

Everyday political participation outside formal processes is taking innovative forms as novel extractive industries threaten local communities in rural Australia. This paper explores how ordinary people are bypassing traditional power centers and adopting creative strategies to 'communicate with power' through the Lock the Gate Alliance (LTGA), a broad-based coalition engaging disparate groups of rural, urban, conservative, Green and indigenous people in mobilization against coal seam gas (CSG) extraction. Through political activism ranging from media campaigns and lobbying to land occupation and lockouts LTGA is successfully reaching influencers. The researcher applies a mixed methods approach in her analysis of the issues and values that unite and divide key actors around 'energy transition' fuels, territory and food in this study. Her work contributes to the broader field organisational studies by interrogating strategic processes of direct action, lobbying, alliance-building and scale-shift and revealing the emerging dynamics of innovative amplification tools adopted by social movements including 'investment risk' campaigns targeting and corporate investors.