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Show 75 Rio Tinto are unique because they have a more immediate, and destructive, relationship with the earth than other nonresource companies, since their networks begin from oil wells, shale deposits, and open-pit mines rather than law firms and advertising agencies. If objects are ontological and rhetorical, and if there is no distinction between nature and culture (Latour, 1991/1993) then the attentive rhetorical critic can therefore trace the history of relations that have gone into producing the basic commodity. Perhaps then researchers may be able to grasp the scale of corporate networks that sustain cultural, political, and communal assemblages. The corporate subject contests traditional models of communication that assume subjects are singular, rational humans because industrial subjectivity is a discursive product located within a complicated network of social, environmental, and economic forces. Corporations are not isolated forces, independent from political, environmental, and public collectives. They are rhizomes that have established associations with other objects in nearly every corner of the earth. As Latour (2005/2007) notes, "Capitalism is certainly the dominant mode of production but no one imagines that there is some homunculus CEO in command, despite the fact that many events look like they obey some implacable strategy" (p. 167). Consider, for instance, how copper has both transformed environmental, political, and technological relations and sustained one of the three corporate subjects that this dissertation analyzes: Rio Tinto. The Networks of Copper: An Intellectual Exercise Copper is an essential commodity to global economic flows of communication technology, and will very likely increase in demand as the 21st century develops. This element can be found in nearly every corner of modern living, ranging from |
