In the following essay, I offer and explain the concept of wild public networks as a tool for social movement scholars interested in taking a network approach to contemporary protests via poststructuralism. Wild public networks offer scholars a means of approaching social movements that moves past binaries to productively incorporate affect. In so doing, the concept of wild public networks advances an ontological shift for social movement scholars that also alters what we examine and how. Wild public networks consider how the movement of the social can be witnessed in changes to relationships between actants and the configurations of networks. To explicate this new concept, I turn to contemporary environmental protests in Maoming, China.

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On December 4, 2017, Patagonia launched its “The President Stole Your Land” initiative on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. In so doing, the longtime corporate social responsibility (CSR) leader entered social media in a deliberately inflammatory and political manner. This initiative defies the principles of CSR often touted in the literature and provides for an intriguing case study. We engage in a close textual reading of initiative materials and identify discursive traces to gain insight into the paradoxical workings of CSR in the context of a hypermediated environment. Through analysis of how Patagonia harnesses wide-ranging and contradictory public input, we identify a strategy of communicating CSR to stakeholders with disparate interests. By exploring the intersection of organizational communication, rhetorical studies, and media theory, this article examines the discursive strategies afforded and precluded by wild public networks. We offer three wild public provocations as new discursive tactics for CSR practitioners.