Abstract
Employing a variety of sociolinguistic analysis methods, Stibbe contributes to a neglected area of scholarship – the marginalisation of the environment and non-human species. The ultimate goal of Ecolinguistics is to consider how language can be used to support the protection of ecosystems and all living species. Stibbe calls on readers to consider how the stories we live by challenge or support ecosophical principles, which include social justice, current impacts on future generations, and the need to recognise the agency of non-human species.
The book is divided into 10 chapters: an introduction to Ecolinguists (Chapter 1), an overview of the relationship between discourse and ideologies (Chapter 2), and seven chapters describing methods of socio-linguistic analysis that can be employed to uncover the connection between general patterns of language use and the stories that support environmentally-related action in the world, as well as a conclusion. The scholarship Stibbe draws on includes critical discourse analysis (CDA), frame theory, metaphor theory and work on erasure and salience.
Stibbe’s framing analysis (Chapter 3) focuses on the use of trigger words, for example the way in which the word ‘problem’ frames situations as needing ‘solutions’. Stibbe argues that if environmental situations were referred to as ‘predicaments’ instead of problems, readers might consider more complex responses. Chapter 4 considers metaphors to be particularly vivid and powerful types of frames. Drawing on the substantial body of discourse work on metaphor, Stibbe demonstrates through his own analyses that metaphors connect concepts in ways that leave the underlying environmentally-damaging ideologies unchallenged. Chapter 5 focuses on evaluations and appraisal patterns (whether a particular aspect of life is good or bad). The author identifies these kinds of appraisals in instances where positive or negative words are clustered together, for example positive terms that cluster with ‘economic growth’, such as ‘progress’, ‘powering ahead’, ‘highest’ and ‘upgrade’.
Early in Chapter 6, Stibbe defines identity as features of perception and cognition that drive action, referring to values that relate to a sense of self that encourages or motivates action on environmental matters (e.g. an ecological identity). Stibbe’s work on presuppositions related to self-extrinsic values (such as consumer identities) and his work on pronouns and sensor agents (e.g. the use of pronouns such as ‘we’ to include human and non-human animals sharing the environment) contribute usefully to work that aligns with a definition of identity that sees it shaped by and resisting discursive practices. However, it has long been recognised that identity is a negotiated term, and this chapter would have benefited from a more nuanced discussion of the concept and its various definitions, including identity as features of perception and cognition, social identities as available resources (identities as features that people use to define themselves and others), and identities as shaped by and resisting discursive practices.
There are other areas in this book where the author could have also considered identity-related explanations for environmental action or inaction. In Chapter 7, writing about convictions and facticity Stibbe appears to argue that readers’ beliefs about human-induced climate change are based on facticity statements associated with the claims in the texts that they are exposed to. Facticity is identified with words such as ‘likely’ versus ‘absolutely certain’. However, this account focuses on the impact of climate change communication by climate change deniers and ignores the recognised association between participants’ stated beliefs in human-induced climate change and their group identifications (e.g. partisanship and affiliation with religious groups). Researchers in the political and climate change communication fields have acknowledged that stated convictions are discursive acts used by participants to reflect and reinforce their collective identifications.
Also in Chapter 7, Stibbe includes important instances where embedded social or political factors (which could include social identifications) shape discursive practices. The author states that these factors remain disguised because of a focus on the facticity of claims. Stibbe draws on earlier research on how views of the environment driven by competing concerns (such as timber and biodiversity) can produce different claims, both accurate from a scientific perspective yet not politically neutral. Stibbe argues that when environmentally-related decisions appear to be made solely in terms of science-based enquiry, the associated social and political factors that decision makers use go unchallenged and remain invisible.
Building on earlier work by the author, the final two analytical chapters (Chapter 8 on erasure and Chapter 9 on salience) make important contributions to the study of discourse and society. In both papers Stibbe refers to linguistic examples that erase the agency of animals and represent them as objects, such as animals as ‘produced’ or cooking products (chickens as broilers, fryers or roasters). Stibbe’s work on salience also points to instances where animals lose their individuality (referring to the volume of animals slayed, not the number of individuals) and other homogenisation efforts (e.g. terms such as ‘cull pig’, ‘grower pig’ ‘and nursery pig’).
The strength in Stibbe’s most recent work is his use of CDA to uncover destructive, ambivalent and beneficial discourses. This focus on identifying the stories we live by to make positive changes in the world marks this book as very accessible for non-academic readers. However, readers would require some background in pragmatic approaches to language to usefully conduct their own research and overcome the criticisms of CDA as ‘impressionistic’ and containing ‘confirmation bias’ that Stibbe acknowledges in the final chapter. All in all, this book provides a useful and engaging piece for anyone concerned with social and political marginalisation. The same kinds of analysis employed by the author can also be applied to areas of gender, ethnicity and class. The detailed descriptions of studies are insightful and interesting to read for scholars at all levels working on the relationship between discourse and society.