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Abstract
This project examines the advocacy of the Kenyan-based Green Belt Movement (GBM) and select theoretical concepts from French philosopher Gilles Deleuze in an exploration of the rhetorical possibilities for social change. Since 1977 the GBM has planted more than 30 million trees and worked to advance issues concerning the environment, women, human rights, democratic governance, and poverty. Deleuzes postmodern philosophy offers an array of concepts that work to flesh out the significance of the GBMs advocacy for the rhetoric of social change. Utilizing and challenging Deleuzian theory, this project focuses on tree planting and shifting personae as creative forms of communication that facilitate openness and deterritorialize the realm of environmental advocacy. In addition to analyzing rhetoric that originates from within the GBM, this project also considers how U.S. media coverage reterritorializes environmentalism. Ultimately, this project highlights the rhetorical possibilities for social change created through openness and openness reterritorialized.