Networks of corporate subjectivity: Southern Pacific, Rio Tinto, BP and the rhetorical emergence of the corporate subject

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7 conversations relevant to corporate subjectivity. These discourses regard 1) the philosophical subject, 2) the philosophical subject as understood by communication researchers, and 3) corporate rhetoric. Third, and finally, this chapter discusses the uses of Actor Network Theory as a method for understanding corporate subjectivity and then previews the subsequent five chapters that each trace networks that comprise corporate subjectivity as an assemblage. Altogether, the argument of the dissertation is that corporations have eclipsed the human subject as the most forceful communicative actors on the planet. Corporate Personhood as a Political Problematic Although corporations have always played some role in political affairs, even if dubiously, Citizens United fundamentally changed the face of the American political system by affirming the capacity for corporations to influence presidents, congresspersons, and direct entire political agendas. According to Jim Rutenberg (2014) of The New York Times, "No longer do [players with the wherewithal] have to buy into the system. Instead, they buy their own pieces of it outright, to use as they see fit" (para. 24). To election lawyer Trevor Potter, who helped draft the McCain-Feingold law that limited flows of corporate "soft money" to campaigns, Citizens United "privatized politics" (para. 24) and made it about financial networks rather than deliberative debate. How, though, has Citizens United specifically influenced the American political system? To address this question, consider one of the most successful, and most hated, corporations in motivating political change: Koch Industries.