{"id":1175,"date":"2010-01-11T00:11:51","date_gmt":"2010-01-11T05:11:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2010\/01\/11\/neuropolitics-environmental-communication\/"},"modified":"2010-01-11T00:11:51","modified_gmt":"2010-01-11T05:11:51","slug":"neuropolitics-environmental-communication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2010\/01\/11\/neuropolitics-environmental-communication\/","title":{"rendered":"neuropolitics & environmental communication"},"content":{"rendered":"

My article “From Frames to Resonance Machines: The Neuropolitics of Environmental Communication” is coming out in the next issue of Environmental Communication<\/a>. Here’s the abstract:<\/em><\/p>\n

George Lakoff\u2019s work in cognitive linguistics has prompted a surge in social scientists\u2019 interest in the cognitive and neuropsychological dimensions of political discourse. Bringing cognitive neuroscience into the study of social movements and of environmental communication, however, is not as straightforward as Lakoff\u2019s followers suggest. Examining and comparing Lakoff\u2019s \u201cneuropolitics\u201d with those of political theorist William E. Connolly, this article argues that Connolly\u2019s writings on evangelical-capitalist and eco-egalitarian \u201cresonance machines\u201d provide a broader model for thinking about the relations between body, brain, and culture. Environmentalists, it concludes, should pluralize their \u201cframes\u201d and pay greater attention to the micropolitical and affective effects of their language and practices on the communities within which they act, communicate, and dwell.<\/p>\n

And a couple of excerpts from the article:<\/em><\/p>\n


\nGeorge Lakoff and William Connolly are two of the more prominent theorists who have attempted to bring ideas from the cognitive and neuropsychological sciences into the social-scientific and political domains. This is by its nature a risky venture, as the field of cognitive science is both rapidly changing and far from paradigmatically unified. This situation leads Gunnell (2007, p. 711) to call cognitive science an \u2018\u2018equal opportunity ideological and methodological resource,\u2019\u2019 as it provides data that could be taken to support a variety of not always compatible positions. Cognitive science is marked by debates over numerous open questions: these include the relationship between the mind and the brain, with some, like Paul Churchland, defending a reductionist \u2018\u2018computational mind\u2019\u2019 and others opting for some form of dualism, parallelism, or defense of \u2018\u2018folk psychology\u2019\u2019; the Darwinian basis of neural architecture, emphasized, for instance, in Stephen Pinker\u2019s notion of a \u2018\u2018language instinct\u2019\u2019 and Daniel Dennett\u2019s theory of cultural \u2018\u2018memes\u2019\u2019; the extent to which that architecture is \u2018\u2018hard-wired\u2019\u2019 or mutable and \u2018\u2018plastic\u2019\u2019; and the significance of the emotions and of embodiment in cognition. [. . .]<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, cognitive studies have over the years produced a picture of human cognition and behavior that is somewhat consistent in its generalities, if contested in its details, and that departs from the traditional understanding of humans as rational actors. Instead, rationality is seen as part of a larger set of brain-mind processes involving complex affective, motorsensory, and neural-cognitive responses. While traditional cognitivism favored a view of neural processes as computational and representational, this view has in recent years been strongly challenged, if not supplanted, by an understanding of cognition as \u2018\u2018embodied,\u2019\u2019 \u2018\u2018situated,\u2019\u2019 \u2018\u2018distributed,\u2019\u2019 and \u2018\u2018enacted\u2019\u2019 in the interactive relationship between an organism and its environment. Each of the latter terms — embodiment, situatedness, distribution, and enaction — represents a different emphasis connected to somewhat different research programs. The overall picture of an \u2018\u2018embodied mind,\u2019\u2019 however, is now well grounded among leading philosophers of cognition as well as many cognitive scientists themselves. It is not the only approach within the field, but it is no longer a minor or insurgent one either (Anderson, 2003; Calvo & Gomila, 2008; Chemero, 2009; Clark, 1997; Damasio, 1999; Gallagher, 2005; Hutchins, 1995; Rowlands, 1994; Shapiro, 2004, 2007; Thompson, 2007; Varela, Thompson, & Rosch, 2001; Wilson, 2002).<\/p>\n

[. . .]<\/p>\n

A careful consideration of the history of conservation and environmental movements, however, shows that viscerally experienced non-conceptual elements — for instance, affect-laden images, and styles of action, of discourse, and of sensibility — have played an extremely important role in these movements. Without the landscape paintings, photographs, and films of the American West, for instance, the movement to set aside and protect American\u2019s national parks would have been inconceivable (Dunaway, 2005; Runte, 1997). Similarly, photographs of the whole earth from space shaped an entire generation\u2019s ability to perceive the globality of the world in ways that had earlier been merely theoretical. As visual theorists such as W. J. T. Mitchell (2005) and Susan Sontag (2003) have argued (the latter in her exploration of the photographs from Abu Ghraib), imagery affects us in ways that elude the interpretive frames we may try to place on it. Terms such as \u2018\u2018national park\u2019\u2019 and \u2018\u2018whole earth\u2019\u2019 played an important role in the shifts in environmental consciousness mentioned above, and in this sense Lakoff \u2019s focus on terminology can be useful. So, however, did the writings of Muir and Thoreau, or, in the case of the space program that produced the whole-earth photographs, key statements made by John F. Kennedy (in his famous speech of May 25, 1961) and Neil Armstrong (\u2018\u2018One small step for man . . .\u2019\u2019). All of these, arguably, affected their audiences at a deliberative as well as a more formative or unconscious level. None of these, however, would have had much effect without the extra-linguistic elements that accompanied their reception: the paintings, photographs, tourist posters, and excited eyewitness accounts of Yosemite and Yellowstone; or the hours spent watching grainy black-and-white images on television, newly institutionalized across the nation as the hearth of the family living room, as it broadcasted the Apollo 11 moon landing, with its soundscape of hesitant call-and-response between Houston and the astronauts, its reverent narration accompanied by electronic blips, technical glitches, and pauses, all of which kept a massive national audience poised on the edge of a unique moment in history. In each case, there is a dimension of feeling and emotional or affective \u2018\u2018contagion\u2019\u2019 (Hatfield, Cacioppo, & Rapson 1994; Tomkins, 1995) that is transmitted and shared as a result of impulses that are often too fragmentary, backgrounded, or imperceptible to be measured, but which taken together have a deeply resonant impact.<\/p>\n

Connolly\u2019s notion of \u2018\u2018resonance machines\u2019\u2019 suggests the importance of such nondiscursive elements in social change. The role of \u2018\u2018image events\u2019\u2019 in mass-mediated environmentalism has been addressed by some environmental communication scholars (Brereton, 2005; DeLuca, 1999; Dobrin & Morey, 2009; Dunaway, 2005), but these have rarely been connected to the insights of neuropsychological research in the way that Connolly proposes. Images and image events, for Connolly, connect not only with discourses and rhetorically shaped identities (as DeLuca, 1999, argues), but also with sensibilities expressed and shared on affective and sub-rational registers. These include a potentially vast range of day-to-day micropolitical and performative practices, such as those associated with green consumption, education, fashion, recycling, art and design, as well as ritualized ways of marking out time and space, such as Earth Days and other ecologically signified calendar events, green-up days at local parks and schoolyards, the restoration of one\u2019s river system, and the like. In this view, the reshaping of the environmental imaginary is more than just a terrain of struggle over competing discourses, but becomes a terrain of personal and social action by which we as individuals and collectives are constituted. [. . .]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My article “From Frames to Resonance Machines: The Neuropolitics of Environmental Communication” is coming out in the next issue of Environmental Communication. Here’s the abstract: George Lakoff\u2019s work in cognitive linguistics has prompted a surge in social scientists\u2019 interest in the cognitive and neuropsychological dimensions of political discourse. Bringing cognitive neuroscience into the study of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[196,689701],"tags":[4427,4428,4411,292,16772,4454],"class_list":["post-1175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ecoculture","category-media_ecology","tag-affect","tag-cognition","tag-connolly","tag-environmental-communication","tag-lakoff","tag-neuropolitics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4IC4a-iX","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1073,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/05\/20\/lakoffs-environmental-frames-vs-connollys-resonance-machines\/","url_meta":{"origin":1175,"position":0},"title":"Lakoff’s environmental frames vs. Connolly’s resonance machines","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"May 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"In Why Environmental Understanding, or \"Framing,\" Matters, published today on the Huffington Post (and on AlterNet), liberal framing guru George Lakoff provides a useful critique of a forthcoming EcoAmerica report on the framing of environmental and climate change issues. While his conclusions are perceptive and make the article a valuable\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Eco-culture"","block_context":{"text":"Eco-culture","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/ecoculture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Descartes3.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2009\/05\/Descartes3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1007,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2008\/12\/01\/the-idea-behind-this-blog-original-version\/","url_meta":{"origin":1175,"position":1},"title":"the idea behind this blog (original version)","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"December 1, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Every blog has its reason for being. The idea behind this one was originally to serve as a forum for thinking in and around the Environmental Thought and Culture Graduate Concentration, which I coordinate at the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont. But that idea mutated\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog stuff"","block_context":{"text":"Blog stuff","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/blog_stuff\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1177,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2010\/01\/12\/climate-rage\/","url_meta":{"origin":1175,"position":2},"title":"climate rage","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"January 12, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Just a quick follow-up to the previous post... After the East Anglia flare-up, Paul Krugman was right to ask what fuels the rage behind climate denialism. Anyone who has perused any popular web site on environmental and climate issues will be struck both by the numbers and the utter vehemence\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Climate change"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/climate-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"climategate.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2010\/01\/climategate.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1063,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/04\/26\/green-frames-nudges\/","url_meta":{"origin":1175,"position":3},"title":"green frames & nudges","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"April 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week's \"Green Mind\" issue of the New York Times Magazine shows how behavioral science is making an impact on environmental policy and decision-making. In particular, Jon Gertner's \"Why Isn't the Brain Green?\" provides a useful summary of how the trendy fields of behavioral economics and 'decision science' are being\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Eco-culture"","block_context":{"text":"Eco-culture","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/ecoculture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1074,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/05\/20\/brulles-response-to-lakoff\/","url_meta":{"origin":1175,"position":4},"title":"Brulle’s response to Lakoff","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"May 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Robert Brulle has kindly shared his reply to George Lakoff's article \"Why Environmental Understanding, or 'Framing,' Matters.\" See below for further discussion of the article. I found Dr. Lakoff's comments quite interesting and revealing of the limitations of cognitive science in the analysis of social change processes. From a sociological\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Eco-culture"","block_context":{"text":"Eco-culture","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/ecoculture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1034,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/02\/26\/immanent-naturalism\/","url_meta":{"origin":1175,"position":5},"title":"Immanent naturalism","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"February 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Immanent naturalism\" is political theorist William E. Connolly's term for a tradition of thought that doesn't seek ultimate explanations, ahistorical forces, or transcendental frameworks to give meaning to the world; rather, it finds meaning enough in the world as it is experienced by mortals like us. 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