Towards the Ecology of Human Communication

Towards the Ecology of Human Communication

Author: Marta Bogusławska-Tafelska

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2015-10-13

Total Pages: 301

ISBN-13: 1443884812

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There is undoubtedly considerable intellectual and methodological progress evident in approaches to linguistics, from systemic and formal methods, to post-Newtonian transpersonal, non-local models of meaning co-creation built within contemporary language studies. Indeed, such changes are constant – the 20th century product orientation of linguistic research is currently being complemented by ecolinguistic processes, with the linearity of scientific perception and treatment being replaced by the dynamic and multispectral approach of “ecological” theory. This book provides a richly detailed analysis of this profound shift within contemporary language and communication research. A particularly interesting facet of this volume is the proposal that the architecture of the human organism is, transpersonally, in constant relation with its immediate surroundings, as well as with non-local multilevel surroundings. This connection is based not only on the cognitive connection of minds or neurocognitive contacts with the nervous and sensual systems of communicators, but on the multidimensional relationship between the manifold communicative modalities living systems possess. Human communication is embedded within a given local communicative situation, as well within the global, non-local environment via the basic ontology of entanglement. The human communicative process is always evolving as a result of the constant fluctuations of life processes. Indeed, the conclusions presented in this volume open up a new approach to present-day linguistics, that human language is an essential life process.


Steps to an Ecology of Mind

Steps to an Ecology of Mind

Author: Gregory Bateson

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 572

ISBN-13: 9780226039053

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Gregory Bateson was a philosopher, anthropologist, photographer, naturalist, and poet, as well as the husband and collaborator of Margaret Mead. This classic anthology of his major work includes a new Foreword by his daughter, Mary Katherine Bateson. 5 line drawings.


The Ecology of Human Development

The Ecology of Human Development

Author: Urie BRONFENBRENNER

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-06-30

Total Pages: 349

ISBN-13: 0674028848

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Here is a book that challenges the very basis of the way psychologists have studied child development. According to Urie Bronfenbrenner, one of the world's foremost developmental psychologists, laboratory studies of the child's behavior sacrifice too much in order to gain experimental control and analytic rigor. Laboratory observations, he argues, too often lead to "the science of the strange behavior of children in strange situations with strange adults for the briefest possible periods of time." To understand the way children actually develop, Bronfenbrenner believes that it will be necessary to observe their behavior in natural settings, while they are interacting with familiar adults over prolonged periods of time. This book offers an important blueprint for constructing such a new and ecologically valid psychology of development. The blueprint includes a complete conceptual framework for analysing the layers of the environment that have a formative influence on the child. This framework is applied to a variety of settings in which children commonly develop, ranging from the pediatric ward to daycare, school, and various family configurations. The result is a rich set of hypotheses about the developmental consequences of various types of environments. Where current research bears on these hypotheses, Bronfenbrenner marshals the data to show how an ecological theory can be tested. Where no relevant data exist, he suggests new and interesting ecological experiments that might be undertaken to resolve current unknowns. Bronfenbrenner's groundbreaking program for reform in developmental psychology is certain to be controversial. His argument flies in the face of standard psychological procedures and challenges psychology to become more relevant to the ways in which children actually develop. It is a challenge psychology can ill-afford to ignore.


Media Ecology

Media Ecology

Author: Lance Strate

Publisher: Understanding Media Ecology

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781433131226

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Media Ecology: An Approach to Understanding the Human Condition provides a long-awaited and much anticipated introduction to media ecology, a field of inquiry defined as the study of media as environments. Lance Strate presents a clear and concise explanation of an intellectual tradition concerned with much more than understanding media, but rather with understanding the conditions that shape us as human beings, drive human history, and determine the prospects for our survival as a species. Much more than a summary, this book represents a new synthesis that moves the field forward in a manner that is both unique and unprecedented, and simultaneously grounded in an unparalleled grasp of media ecology's intellectual foundations and its relation to other disciplines. Taking as its subject matter "life, the universe, and everything," Strate describes the field as interdisciplinary and communication-centered, provides a detailed explication of McLuhan's famous aphorism, "the medium is the message," and explains that the human condition can only be understood in the context of our biophysical, technological, and symbolic environments. Strate provides an in-depth examination of media ecology's four key terms: medium, which is defined in much broader terms than in other fields; bias, which refers to tendencies inherent in materials and methods; effects, which are best understood via the Aristotelian notion of formal causality and contemporary systems theory; and environment, which includes the distinctions between the oral, chirographic, typographic, and electronic media environments. A chapter on tools serves as a guide to further media ecological research and scholarship. This book is well suited for graduate and undergraduate courses on communication theory and philosophy.


Digital Media

Digital Media

Author: Paul Messaris

Publisher: Peter Lang

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 9780820478401

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In this must-have new anthology, top media scholars explore the leading edge of digital media studies to provide a broad, authoritative survey of the study of the field and a compelling preview of future developments. This book is divided into five key areas - video games, digital images, the electronic word, computers and music, and new digital media - and offers an invaluable guide for students and scholars alike.


Communicating Nature

Communicating Nature

Author: Julia B. Corbett

Publisher:

Published: 2006-11-06

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13:

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A broader and more comprehensive understanding of how we communicate with each other about the natural world and our relationship to it is essential to solving environmental problems. How do individuals develop beliefs and ideologies about the environment? How do we express those beliefs through communication? How are we influenced by the messages of pop culture and social institutions? And how does all this communication become part of the larger social fabric of what we know as "the environment"? Communicating Nature explores and explains the multiple levels of everyday communication that come together to form our perceptions of the natural world. Author Julia Corbett considers all levels of communication, from communication at the individual level, to environmental messages transmitted by popular culture, to communication generated by social institutions including political and regulatory agencies, business and corporations, media outlets, and educational organizations. The book offers a fresh and engaging introductory look at a topic of broad interest, and is an important work for students of the environment, activists and environmental professionals interested in understanding the cultural context of human-nature interactions.


Video Mind, Earth Mind

Video Mind, Earth Mind

Author: Paul Ryan

Publisher: Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 506

ISBN-13:

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Video Mind, Earth Mind is a collection of texts (1968-1991) by Paul Ryan offering ideas about how video and television can be used to respond to our ecological crisis. For example, Mr. Ryan presents the development of a teachable method for using video to interpret the natural world. Based on this method, he articulates a systemic way of using television to ground human communication in ecological systems. He argues that grounding our television communications in ecological systems will help control our runaway destruction of this planet and shape ways of living on earth that are sustainable.


Human Ecology

Human Ecology

Author: Amos H. Hawley

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 1986-11-15

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 0226319849

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Human Ecology: A Theoretical Essay, by Amos Hawley, presents for the first time a unified theory of human ecology by a scholar whose name is virtually synonymous with the discipline. Focused on the interaction between society and environment, human ecology is an attempt to deal holistically with the phenomenon of human organization. Beginning in the first quarter of the century, sociologists such as Park, Burgess, and McKenzie developed the study of human ecology to account for the dynamics of change in American cities. Over time, theorists have reached beyond the boundaries of sociology, drawing on the findings of economics, political science, anthropology, and bioecology, to understand the relationship of human beings to their environment. Hawley has successfully integrated the scattered theses of this wide-ranging discipline into a schematic whole. The early human ecologists seized on the analogy of plant communities as a way of understanding urban communities. Hawley here maintains that the most important contribution to human ecology of the lexicons of plant and animal ecologies is the perspective of collective life as an adaptive process consisting in an interaction of environment, population, and organization. From the adaptive profess, he argues, emerges the ecosystem, a concept that serves as a common denominator for bioecology and human ecology. Hawley has codified the theory of human ecology by a set of deductive hypotheses that establish its claims to coherence and comprehensiveness. His model charts a synthesis of ecological concepts ranging from adaptation and equilibrium through growth in temporal and spatial dimensions to convergence and openness. The essay underscores the critical importance of transportation and communication technology to the shaping of the human ecological system. Human Ecology brings concision and elegance to this holistic perspective and will serve as a point of reference and orientation for anyone interested in the powers and scope of the ecological approach.


Ecological Communication and Ecoliteracy

Ecological Communication and Ecoliteracy

Author: Maria Bortoluzzi

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2024-05-02

Total Pages: 191

ISBN-13: 1350335843

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This open access volume is a call for ecological awareness and action through communication. It offers perspectives on how we, as humans, posit ourselves in relation to, and as part of, the environment in both verbal and non-verbal discourse. The contributions investigate a variety of situated communicative practices and how they instantiate and potentially influence our actions. Through the frameworks of ecolinguistics, multimodal studies and ecoliteracy, the book discusses how the environmental crisis is communicated as an urgent global and local issue in a variety of media, texts and events. The contributions present a wide range of case studies (including news articles, institutional websites, artwork installations, promotional texts, signposting, social campaigns and other), and they explore how communicative actions can help meet the challenges of ecologically-oriented change. The focus is on the impact that linguistic and multimodal communication can have on acting in, with and towards the environment seen as living ecosystems, or 'lifescapes'. The chapters offer a reflection on the way we experience, endorse, reframe and resist value systems in ecological communication, and propose alternative and healthier perspectives to respect and preserve the common and nurturing lifescapes through awareness and action. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com.