Chris Russill

The Road Not Taken: William James’s Radical Empiricism and Communication Theory

This essay examines how William James’s radical empiricism deals with indeterminism and formulates a central issue in contemporary communication theory; incommensurability. A close textual reading of James’s initial approach of indeterminacy as chaos is provided and I argue James subsequently reformulates this as the problem of incommensurability in his radical empiricism. In this way, James overcomes a chaos/order dualism that continues to orient much communication theory. I examine three post-positivist theories of communication — Pearce & Cronen’s Coordinated Management of Meaning, Habermas’s Theory of Communicative Action, and Mosco’s Political Economy of Communication – in light of this finding and consider its implications for pragmatist projects in communication. It is suggested that although John Durham Peters’s Speaking into the Air anticipates many of these findings, recovering James’s radical empiricism can facilitate the reconstruction of a pragmatist tradition of thougt subsequently developed through George Herbert Mead and John Dewey.

Interdisciplinary Environmental Education: Communicating and Applying Energy Efficiency for Sustainability

This article demonstrates that interdisciplinary alliances on environmental education projects can effectively address the gap between complex environmental problems in the real world and disciplinary curricula in a university. We describe an alliance between an advanced communication course and a general science course wherein we addressed interconnections of energy efficiency, economics, and global climate change with respect to their impact on individuals, local businesses, and society. This project established that an interdisciplinary environmental project focused on local solutions to global problems is both a valuable learning tool for students and an effective method of accelerating the application of appropriate technologies.[environmental communication, environmental education, interdisciplinary, sustainability]

Student Inquiries into Neglected Research for a Sustainable Society: Communication and Application

By applying the interdisciplinary approach of science, technology, and society, students can solve often-neglected research problems of shifting societys operation toward a sustainable state. A recent Penn State University student research report titled The Mueller Report: Moving Beyond Sustainability Indicators to Sustainability Action contained a detailed ecological analysis of one campus building and addressed methods to optimize its ecological performance in terms of sustainability by using both behavioral and technological improvements. This article analyzes the factors that affected the successful implementation of sustainable practices generated by student research: (a) choosing a receptive primary audience, (b) establishing interpersonal relationships with decision makers, (c) saturating the local media, (d) making sustainability convenient, and (e) demonstrating fiscal responsibility.

The Ideology of the Epidemic

In recent years, epidemiology has made a leap from specialized literature to popular discourse. Thanks in part to Malcolm Gladwells bestselling treatment of “social epidemics,” The Tipping Point, nearly every facet of social and political life—from fashion trends and crime waves to global warming and obesity rates—has been described as an epidemic. This paper explores the rise of an “epidemiological imaginary” in which the language of epidemiology proves increasingly persuasive as a way to understand social and political life. This paper explains this imaginary as a reaction to widespread destabilizations of social space, and examines the implicit and explicit political consequences of this way of seeing the world. Ultimately, we argue that the metaphorics of infection resonates with the experience of globalization, but that its political effects depend on its ability to intermix with more concrete political ideologies.

Stephen Schneider and the “Double Ethical Bind” of Climate Change Communication

Stephen Schneider’s perspective on climate change communication is distinguished by its longevity, a keen anticipation of research findings, historical understanding, and grounding in first-person experience. In this article, the author elaborates Schneider’s work in terms of its key claims, suggestive research directions, and lessons for scientists, journalists, and citizens. This article also evaluates his “double ethical bind” formulation to discuss potential limitations regarding precautionary policy. In conclusion, the author suggests that Schneider’s work has been important for advancing a robust precautionary perspective for climate change, but that it may be insufficient for carrying this perspective through to fuller expression.

The Buoyancy of Failure Battling Nature in New Orleans

New Orleans and the Mississippi River are often described as a battleground in the war between man and nature. The authors argue that crisis displacement strategies disincline reflection on how this characterization contributes to catastrophic events. The authors outline three sites of crisis displacement: the Army Corps of Engineers, media coverage, and the philosophy of war of the United States government.

Temporal Metaphor in Abrupt Climate Change Communication: An Initial Effort at Clarification

Abrupt climate change has recently become the focus of significant attention. The belief that abrupt climate changes have not been given due weight in scientific reporting and policy discussion has become more vocal since the turn of the century. New research has incorporated these possibilities in terms of tipping points and tipping elements, and argued that projections of gradual change can lull society into a false sense of security. In this paper, I draw attention to the metaphorical quality of abrupt climate change discourse. I examine the discourse occasioned by such abrupt change warnings, and I illuminate how deeply embedded temporal assumptions orient evaluations of climate change danger. I suggest that many familiar points of dispute might be indexed to different visions of time and change, and I develop the role of metaphor for better understanding climate change communication on this matter, and more generally.

The “Danger” of Consensus Messaging: Or, Why to Shift From Skeptic-First to Migration-First Approaches

Consensus messaging is a climate change communication strategy emphasizing the fact of scientific consensus on anthropogenic global warming (AGW). Its proponents encourage scientists, journalists and educators to transmit consensus messages in hopes of improving public climate literacy. Critics of this approach question its methodology for determining consensus and its effectiveness as a strategy for improving public understanding and policymaking. I review these debates to determine what is at stake in disagreements over consensus messaging and suggest that issues of climate change danger are addressed too narrowly when the expectations, style and categories of consensus messaging are dominant. I recommend that ‘migration-first’ approaches displace the priority of ‘skeptic-first’ approaches to climate change communication, and that scholars begin asking what is owed to those most affected by climate change danger.