Laura A Bray
Biographic Data
| ID | 190866 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Laura A Bray |
| GIVEN NAMES | Laura A |
| FAMILY NAME | Bray |
| SIGNATURE | BRAY L A |
| AFFILIATIONS | North Carolina State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7429-5268 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 46 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The “New Flu
Pandemics are inherently disruptive, evoking uncomfortable and unsustainable emotions. We explore the emotional landscape of the COVID-19 pandemic and its normalization among vaccine hesitant residents in Oklahoma. Ontological insecurity reported at the pandemic's outset stemmed from the absence of a clear and resonant cultural script that left individuals to construct narratives in which COVID-19 came to be understood as the "New Flu." Within a …
Rising to the Challenge
Management and organization studies (MOS) scholars have recently brought attention to the lack of engagement with social equity and justice in tackling grand challenges. We argue that environmental justice (EJ) can deepen MOS’ engagement with social equity in addressing grand challenges, particularly climate change. Through a bibliometric analysis and qualitative review, we explore scholarly communities within EJ literature and draw connections t…
Shifting power
Environmental Risk and Chemical Weapons Disposal
BRIDGE Builders – Leadership and social capital in disaster recovery governance
CATCH-UP vaccines
ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT05236270, First Posted: February 11, 2022, Last Update Posted: August 31, 2022
Water Justice across the Rural-Urban Interface
Research on rural-urban water struggles establishes the importance of symbolic spatial categories for facilitating and justifying rural-to-urban water transfers. I build on this scholarship by asking how officials construct the rural-urban interface, or patterns of interaction across spatial boundaries, during water conflicts. This study takes a historical case study approach centered on the San Juan-Chama Project (SJCP) in New Mexico (USA), a tr…
Human Rights and Dissent in Hybrid Environments
Research indicates that social movements are shaped by increased opportunities and threats, yet this work rarely examines environments of intersecting opportunity and threat. This article extends the literature on political opportunity theory by explaining how shifting rights regimes influence the political context of movements. Specifically, we analyze how dissent in Communist Czechoslovakia responded to the expansion and contraction of rights a…
Agrochemical Exposure & Environmental Illness
Prior research on legal repression shows how elites use criminal law to demobilize collective challenges, yet social control efforts based in civil law have received inadequate attention. In this study, we develop the concept of elite legal framing to examine how corporations deploy “soft” forms of repression within the civil justice system. Drawing on court, government, and media documents, we analyze a series of transnational civil litigation c…
Settler Colonialism and Rural Environmental Injustice
Environmental justice research highlights the distinct processes generating environmental problems in rural places. Rural communities of color suffer the dual disadvantage of spatial and racial marginalization, yet we know little about the role of race and racism within rural environmental inequality formation. This study draws on theories of settler colonialism and rural environmental justice to investigate the historical formation of water ineq…
Opportunity and threat behind the Iron Curtain
Research has highlighted the importance of diffusion processes for the emergence and spread of collective action, yet less attention has been paid to cases where diffusion fails to lead to successful campaigns. This article analyzes an instance of failed movement diffusion to explicate how proximate episodes of contention interact with domestic configurations of opportunity and threat. The authors draw on a failed human rights campaign in communi…
Petrochemical Pollution and the Suppression of Environmental Protest
While research has established how elite actors can work to protect structures that contribute to environmental harm, relatively less is known about the cultural resources that can serve elite interests at the local level. In cases of localized pollution, multiple groups have vested interests in protecting corporate legitimacy. We draw on treadmill of production theory and collective identity to analyze a case of community petrochemical contamina…
Elite Cultural Work and Discursive Obstruction of Human Rights Activism
When challenged, states frequently respond with discursive campaigns meant to undercut the legitimacy of social movements. However, we know little about how the social and cultural status of challengers affects the state’s discursive response. We address this gap by analyzing an important historical case of human rights activism in Communist Czechoslovakia. Despite its long history of violence and repression, Czechoslovakia signed several interna…
Framing authoritarian legitimacy
Protest activity presents a significant threat to state legitimacy in nondemocratic settings. Although authoritarian regimes rely heavily on coercion, state officials must also justify their authority to both the public and other elites. Previous work has shown how elites vilify challengers to legitimize repression, but scholars have yet to examine how state officials engage in meaning work to prevent elite divisions from forming in light of popu…
Mobilizing Grievances in an Authoritarian Setting
Material and physical threat can play a crucial role in the emergence of protest, yet few studies have explored the micro-level mechanisms that transform threat into collective action under repressive conditions. We address this gap by connecting the mobilizing power of grievances to the emotional dynamics of collective action in the context of a 1953 uprising in Communist Czechoslovakia. Following economic reforms that wiped out citizens' saving…
Political Power and Manufacturing Consent
Extant research has investigated the relationship between the powerful and the powerless in a variety of contexts. Understanding the processes undergirding political power is critical to uncovering subtle social control mechanisms, specifically as they contribute to public consent and quiescence. We draw on the case of protest in Communist Czechoslovakia to investigate the mechanisms elites employ to protect their legitimacy. Data include governm…
Legal Repression of Protesters
Decades of scholarship have established that dissident activity provokes state repression when it threatens elite interests and legitimacy, but there has been research attention on how state repression diffuses through institutional channels such as courts. Legal settings operate as a key site for the construction and implementation of elite discursive strategies used to undercut the legitimacy of protesters and justify repression. Social movemen…
Media and ‘undone science’ in West Virginia’s Elk River chemical spill
In January 2014, a storage tank in Charleston, West Virginia leaked 10,000 gallons of an industrial coal-cleansing chemical called ‘crude MCHM’ into the Elk River, poisoning the water supply of 300,000 residents. During the ensuing water crisis, conflict quickly developed over the risks of chemical exposure. Few studies on crude MCHM existed, leaving large knowledge gaps about the potential health consequences for residents in the affected area. …
Legal Repression of Protesters
Decades of scholarship have established that dissident activity provokes state repression when it threatens elite interests and legitimacy, but there has been research attention on how state repression diffuses through institutional channels such as courts. Legal settings operate as a key site for the construction and implementation of elite discursive strategies used to undercut the legitimacy of protesters and justify repression. Social movemen…
Settler Colonialism and Rural Environmental Injustice
Environmental justice research highlights the distinct processes generating environmental problems in rural places. Rural communities of color suffer the dual disadvantage of spatial and racial marginalization, yet we know little about the role of race and racism within rural environmental inequality formation. This study draws on theories of settler colonialism and rural environmental justice to investigate the historical formation of water ineq…
Framing authoritarian legitimacy
Protest activity presents a significant threat to state legitimacy in nondemocratic settings. Although authoritarian regimes rely heavily on coercion, state officials must also justify their authority to both the public and other elites. Previous work has shown how elites vilify challengers to legitimize repression, but scholars have yet to examine how state officials engage in meaning work to prevent elite divisions from forming in light of popu…
Elite Cultural Work and Discursive Obstruction of Human Rights Activism
When challenged, states frequently respond with discursive campaigns meant to undercut the legitimacy of social movements. However, we know little about how the social and cultural status of challengers affects the state’s discursive response. We address this gap by analyzing an important historical case of human rights activism in Communist Czechoslovakia. Despite its long history of violence and repression, Czechoslovakia signed several interna…
Petrochemical Pollution and the Suppression of Environmental Protest
While research has established how elite actors can work to protect structures that contribute to environmental harm, relatively less is known about the cultural resources that can serve elite interests at the local level. In cases of localized pollution, multiple groups have vested interests in protecting corporate legitimacy. We draw on treadmill of production theory and collective identity to analyze a case of community petrochemical contamina…
Water Justice across the Rural-Urban Interface
Research on rural-urban water struggles establishes the importance of symbolic spatial categories for facilitating and justifying rural-to-urban water transfers. I build on this scholarship by asking how officials construct the rural-urban interface, or patterns of interaction across spatial boundaries, during water conflicts. This study takes a historical case study approach centered on the San Juan-Chama Project (SJCP) in New Mexico (USA), a tr…
Mobilizing Grievances in an Authoritarian Setting
Material and physical threat can play a crucial role in the emergence of protest, yet few studies have explored the micro-level mechanisms that transform threat into collective action under repressive conditions. We address this gap by connecting the mobilizing power of grievances to the emotional dynamics of collective action in the context of a 1953 uprising in Communist Czechoslovakia. Following economic reforms that wiped out citizens' saving…
Media and ‘undone science’ in West Virginia’s Elk River chemical spill
In January 2014, a storage tank in Charleston, West Virginia leaked 10,000 gallons of an industrial coal-cleansing chemical called ‘crude MCHM’ into the Elk River, poisoning the water supply of 300,000 residents. During the ensuing water crisis, conflict quickly developed over the risks of chemical exposure. Few studies on crude MCHM existed, leaving large knowledge gaps about the potential health consequences for residents in the affected area. …
Human Rights and Dissent in Hybrid Environments
Research indicates that social movements are shaped by increased opportunities and threats, yet this work rarely examines environments of intersecting opportunity and threat. This article extends the literature on political opportunity theory by explaining how shifting rights regimes influence the political context of movements. Specifically, we analyze how dissent in Communist Czechoslovakia responded to the expansion and contraction of rights a…
Opportunity and threat behind the Iron Curtain
Research has highlighted the importance of diffusion processes for the emergence and spread of collective action, yet less attention has been paid to cases where diffusion fails to lead to successful campaigns. This article analyzes an instance of failed movement diffusion to explicate how proximate episodes of contention interact with domestic configurations of opportunity and threat. The authors draw on a failed human rights campaign in communi…
Media and ‘undone science’ in West Virginia’s Elk River chemical spill
In January 2014, a storage tank in Charleston, West Virginia leaked 10,000 gallons of an industrial coal-cleansing chemical called ‘crude MCHM’ into the Elk River, poisoning the water supply of 300,000 residents. During the ensuing water crisis, conflict quickly developed over the risks of chemical exposure. Few studies on crude MCHM existed, leaving large knowledge gaps about the potential health consequences for residents in the affected area. …
Legal Repression of Protesters
Decades of scholarship have established that dissident activity provokes state repression when it threatens elite interests and legitimacy, but there has been research attention on how state repression diffuses through institutional channels such as courts. Legal settings operate as a key site for the construction and implementation of elite discursive strategies used to undercut the legitimacy of protesters and justify repression. Social movemen…
Elite Cultural Work and Discursive Obstruction of Human Rights Activism
When challenged, states frequently respond with discursive campaigns meant to undercut the legitimacy of social movements. However, we know little about how the social and cultural status of challengers affects the state’s discursive response. We address this gap by analyzing an important historical case of human rights activism in Communist Czechoslovakia. Despite its long history of violence and repression, Czechoslovakia signed several interna…
Framing authoritarian legitimacy
Protest activity presents a significant threat to state legitimacy in nondemocratic settings. Although authoritarian regimes rely heavily on coercion, state officials must also justify their authority to both the public and other elites. Previous work has shown how elites vilify challengers to legitimize repression, but scholars have yet to examine how state officials engage in meaning work to prevent elite divisions from forming in light of popu…
Mobilizing Grievances in an Authoritarian Setting
Material and physical threat can play a crucial role in the emergence of protest, yet few studies have explored the micro-level mechanisms that transform threat into collective action under repressive conditions. We address this gap by connecting the mobilizing power of grievances to the emotional dynamics of collective action in the context of a 1953 uprising in Communist Czechoslovakia. Following economic reforms that wiped out citizens' saving…
Political Power and Manufacturing Consent
Extant research has investigated the relationship between the powerful and the powerless in a variety of contexts. Understanding the processes undergirding political power is critical to uncovering subtle social control mechanisms, specifically as they contribute to public consent and quiescence. We draw on the case of protest in Communist Czechoslovakia to investigate the mechanisms elites employ to protect their legitimacy. Data include governm…
Opportunity and threat behind the Iron Curtain
Research has highlighted the importance of diffusion processes for the emergence and spread of collective action, yet less attention has been paid to cases where diffusion fails to lead to successful campaigns. This article analyzes an instance of failed movement diffusion to explicate how proximate episodes of contention interact with domestic configurations of opportunity and threat. The authors draw on a failed human rights campaign in communi…
Petrochemical Pollution and the Suppression of Environmental Protest
While research has established how elite actors can work to protect structures that contribute to environmental harm, relatively less is known about the cultural resources that can serve elite interests at the local level. In cases of localized pollution, multiple groups have vested interests in protecting corporate legitimacy. We draw on treadmill of production theory and collective identity to analyze a case of community petrochemical contamina…
Settler Colonialism and Rural Environmental Injustice
Environmental justice research highlights the distinct processes generating environmental problems in rural places. Rural communities of color suffer the dual disadvantage of spatial and racial marginalization, yet we know little about the role of race and racism within rural environmental inequality formation. This study draws on theories of settler colonialism and rural environmental justice to investigate the historical formation of water ineq…
Water Justice across the Rural-Urban Interface
Research on rural-urban water struggles establishes the importance of symbolic spatial categories for facilitating and justifying rural-to-urban water transfers. I build on this scholarship by asking how officials construct the rural-urban interface, or patterns of interaction across spatial boundaries, during water conflicts. This study takes a historical case study approach centered on the San Juan-Chama Project (SJCP) in New Mexico (USA), a tr…
Human Rights and Dissent in Hybrid Environments
Research indicates that social movements are shaped by increased opportunities and threats, yet this work rarely examines environments of intersecting opportunity and threat. This article extends the literature on political opportunity theory by explaining how shifting rights regimes influence the political context of movements. Specifically, we analyze how dissent in Communist Czechoslovakia responded to the expansion and contraction of rights a…
Agrochemical Exposure & Environmental Illness
Prior research on legal repression shows how elites use criminal law to demobilize collective challenges, yet social control efforts based in civil law have received inadequate attention. In this study, we develop the concept of elite legal framing to examine how corporations deploy “soft” forms of repression within the civil justice system. Drawing on court, government, and media documents, we analyze a series of transnational civil litigation c…
BRIDGE Builders – Leadership and social capital in disaster recovery governance
CATCH-UP vaccines
ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT05236270, First Posted: February 11, 2022, Last Update Posted: August 31, 2022
Rising to the Challenge
Management and organization studies (MOS) scholars have recently brought attention to the lack of engagement with social equity and justice in tackling grand challenges. We argue that environmental justice (EJ) can deepen MOS’ engagement with social equity in addressing grand challenges, particularly climate change. Through a bibliometric analysis and qualitative review, we explore scholarly communities within EJ literature and draw connections t…
Shifting power
Environmental Risk and Chemical Weapons Disposal
The “New Flu
Pandemics are inherently disruptive, evoking uncomfortable and unsustainable emotions. We explore the emotional landscape of the COVID-19 pandemic and its normalization among vaccine hesitant residents in Oklahoma. Ontological insecurity reported at the pandemic's outset stemmed from the absence of a clear and resonant cultural script that left individuals to construct narratives in which COVID-19 came to be understood as the "New Flu." Within a …
Political science (16 works) · Law (13 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Politics (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Political economy (7 works) · Elite (5 works) · Legitimacy (5 works) · Engineering (4 works) · Environmental Justice and Health Disparities (4 works)