Kenneth Burke + The Posthuman

Abstract

leadership. While the peace women, for example, may appear insignificant when approached by a framework that privileges a single strong leader, Stillion Southard’s highly contextualized methodology creates space for complex and diffuse forms of rhetorical leadership. In other words, the methodical framework not only respects complex power differences, but also opens space for practical and theoretical insights. Scholars interested in civic engagement and practices of belonging will also be interested in this research. Stillion Southard identifies concrete rhetorical practices that participate in different forms of belonging – regional denizenship, national cosmopolitanism, and transnational connectivity. In many cases the practices may seem unremarkable, but Stillion Southard’s strong analysis reveals the significance and ingenuity of these practices within their specific contexts. The spatial framework of the analysis allows the author to engage alternatives to nation-states as sites of belonging. Yet, these belonging practices also create possibilities for different conceptualizations of space. The peace women’s fluidity, for example, functioned to challenge the meanings and significance of national borders in much the same way as Bachelet’s subtle reinforcement of global connectivity. By foregrounding practices of belonging Stillion Southard reveals both the importance of underappreciated rhetorical practices as well as the ways in which these same rhetorical practices can reshape meanings of space. Finally, How to Belong makes contributions to understandings of rhetorical leadership and agency. Stillion Southard approaches rhetorical agency as “the conditions of possibility and assertion of rhetorical practices constitutive of belonging” (7). Thus, questions of agency are deeply implicated in her methodological decisions and attention to specific rhetorical practices of belonging. In accounting for particular woman leaders and providing meticulous contextualization for their rhetoric, Stillion Southard works to unravel some of the multifaceted dynamics of power and agency, especially given the complexities of an increasingly transnational world. Stillion Southard traces a rhetorical agency that is “disperse, networked, and interconnected,” (10) and within these complexities she uncovers women leaders who have exercised resourcefulness and creativity. Thus, How to Belong offers a valuable contribution to studies of women’s rhetoric and belonging in a transnational world.