Rhetorical fractures : designing for social movement growth using ancient and contemporary tools

Abstract

Informational weapons may be more lethal and are certainly less predictable than the nuclear warheads capturing the focus of strategic and military planners since the 1940's. Genres considering mass persuasion and social and political movements remain disparate fields. In this thesis, four distinct academic verticals of thought are considered, concerning how to make sense of networks of ideas, people, and organizations. These genres include ancient rhetoric, enterprise design theory including stakeholder salience frameworks, social movement theory, and network science consisting of game and graph theory. The purpose of the thesis is to better understand the foundational forms that imbue meaning and create impact for social and political movements. The premise is to consider ostensibly inexplicable political events and strategies, termed "rhetorical fractures," that seem to be immediately and durably effective. Through analyzing aberrant events, this thesis hopes to identify the fundamental forms causing impact through social and political movements.