From Francesca Zunino
I am sending some reflections on the two questions on Ecoinguistics Arran proposed. I hope they can be of use for a constructive and productive discussion among all of us.
Thank you, and many cheers from
Francesca
1. WHAT CONSTITUTES THE ESSENCE OF ECOLINGUISTICS?
Under the ethical standpoint of biocentrism, holism, and deep ecology, Ecolinguistics in all its implications tries to push the ideological, linguistic, cultural and research boundaries, and to open innovative pathways linking perspectives and disciplines from the traditionally detached “cultural” and “natural” areas.
This ethical, integrated approach wishes to tackle the cultural separation between people and the environment - of which we are in fact an integral part -, and to reconsider our destructive and constructive roles in the present ecological crisis’ challenges of communication and action.
2. WHY IS ECOLINGUISTICS STILL A MINORITY PURSUIT?
The main reasons why Ecolinguistics is still quite an outcast research area are similar to those that explain why the ecological point of view is still fairly missing in the various academic disciplines, and in the global way of life. More specifically, I think that six macroscopic explanations can be found:
a) a general lack of environmental ethics, awareness, interest and long-term vision regarding ecological matters, specially in the academic contexts;
b) mainstream linguistic, sociological, anthropological and cultural research are still not overcoming their strictly anthropocentric, atomized and ecosystemically de-contextualized views;
c1) “The discipline is currently on its way to find its home in academia but it holds an interdisciplinary potential with research carried out in human geography, environmental history, eco-feminism, cultural studies, anthropology, psychology, ecology, environmental sociology, science and technology studies.” (Döring, Penz & Trampe, 2008:12). The necessarily in-progress ecolinguistic research is struggling to keep up with the great variety of the theories and applications that can be drawn from its perspectives, and thus to organize and systematize itself. This is also due to the need for increasing the number of people involved in ecolinguistics, linking everyone dealing with the “eco” and “bio” - ecological, environmental, natural and biological issues, also from the so-called scientific areas, and from the community and NGOs.
c2) there still is a huge general failure in recognizing the basic role that communication plays in shaping reality (also by the so-called scientific areas of research);
c3) the need for ecolinguists to deeply study the issues involved from an ecological and biological standpoint, and therefore to engage in deeper applied interdisciplinary analyses (such as the discourses on land management, property and governance, on GMOs, on food production, on waste disposal and recycling, on renewable energy sources); it may seem theory is still being more researched than the consequent methodological and analytical aspects;
d) the quickly arising pseudo-environmental economic and political “greenspeak” or “greenwash” discourse is helping the mystification of the already complex global perception and relationship between language and its deriving actions on the planet.
Ecolinguistics is currently finding itself at a turning point: although it has not become a mainstream research area yet, the new environmental concerns that are being displayed by politics and the economy may also be of use to enhance the ecological approach not only in linguistics and cultural studies, but also in every aspect of human life. Ecolinguistics can be of great use for deeper “sustainable equilibrium” politics at a time when rising above shallow environmental “sustainable development” discourse is crucial for the survival of all forms of life on the planet.
