Rethinking rhetorical field methods on a precarious planet

Critical, Engaged and Change-oriented Scholarship in Environmental Communication. Six Methodological Dilemmas to Think With

“…It has the explicit aim to uncover unequal power relations in social struggles over sustainability, environmental resources, landscapes and representations, and through that contribute to socio-environmental justice (Agyeman, 2007;Sowards, 2012). As such, it is part of the change-oriented agenda, inherent to EC as a "crisis discipline" (Cox, 2007), which seeks to contribute to advocacy and environmental justice (Depoe, Delicath, & Elsenbeer, 2004), climate change activism (Endres, Sprain, & Peterson, 2009) and research for social impact (Pezzullo & de Onís, 2018). Such an agenda always needs to be accompanied by critical questions about whose change, why and how.…”

“…Indeed, critical and change-oriented EC research is often engaged, driven by the ambition and ethical stance to recognize multiple ways of knowing and, consequently, the need to co-produce knowledge together with non-academic actors (Endres et al, 2009), through, e.g. community based participatory research (Chen, Milstein, Anguiano, Sandoval, & Knudsen, 2012), rhetorical field methods (Pezzullo & de Onís, 2018) or collaborative governance (Walker & Senecah, 2011).…”

Engaged Communication Scholarship for Environmental Justice: A Research Agenda

“…At present, the least participatory approaches that can still meet the definition of ES include risk communication (Lundgren & McMakin, 2018) and public understanding of science (Groffman et al, 2010), when they involve tailoring information to communities based on surveys, focus groups, and other means of gauging their interests and needs. Ethnography (de Onís & Pezzullo, 2017) and rhetorical field studies (Pezzullo & de Onís, 2018) can promote fuller participation by amplifying community members' voices in scholarship and conducting "member checks" with participants to test researchers' understandings against community interpretations (although researchers exert final control over analysis). Community members can be involved in more aspects of study design and execution in much applied communication research (Barge, 2016), in which non-academics are often researchers' clients, and in large-scale citizen science projects (Allan & Ewart, 2015), in which the community usually plays a bigger role in gathering than analyzing and expressing data.…”

Energy Colonialism Powers the Ongoing Unnatural Disaster in Puerto Rico

“…First, the archipelago's energy challenges and its related, disproportionate experiences with environmental degradation and climate disruption make Puerto Rico an apt location for examining the precarity and consequences of carbon-based economies (Pezzullo and de Onís, 2017). Detailed study of Puerto Rico's energy exigencies helps make the need to transition justly and sustainably from high-to low-carbon energy sources feel pressing and vital.…”

“…Rising and acidifying oceans, desertification, species extinction, and the increasing intensity and frequency of extreme weather events, epitomized by Hurricane María, remind us of the growing urgency posed by our climate crisis and the untenable practices that fuel this reckless trajectory (de Onís, 2012). The alternative path is not easy, and it involves grappling with the tensions of alienation and interconnection, loss and love, crisis and caring, and harm and hope that shape our present moment (Pezzullo and Cox, 2017;Pezzullo and de Onís, 2017). The material sea change linked to global climate disruption already threatens life in disproportionately impacted communities.…”