عنوان

Adapting Environmental Ethics and Behaviors: Toward a Posthuman Rhetoric of Community Engagement

Number

TL50426

.Language of Text, Soundtrack etc

انگلیسی

Title Proper

Adapting Environmental Ethics and Behaviors: Toward a Posthuman Rhetoric of Community Engagement

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

Shirley, Beth J.

Subsequent Statement of Responsibility

Colton, Jared

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

Utah State University

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

2019

Text of Note

252 p.

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Ph.D.

Body granting the degree

Utah State University

Text preceding or following the note

2019

Text of Note

What persuades people one way or another to accept or deny climate change? More importantly, what persuades people to act on, ignore, or even be defiant of climate change? We would like to think that people are motivated when they hear the science explained clearly and when they are presented with a clear understanding of how their actions have a lasting impact. Yet the science on climate change has been made clear for some time, and doubt in climate change science is rampant (at least in the United States). This dissertation seeks to answer these questions and develop a new methodology for persuading people to change their behaviors to be more environmentally friendly. I discuss a rhetorical theory called new materialism (a branch of posthumanism) that looks at the impact that nonhuman factors have on an audience's decision-making. I apply that theory to the study of technical communication in three case studies of rural communities in Utah, Morocco, and Ohio, learning from local knowledges and seeking to understand what persuades these audiences' in a more complex way than we may have previously thought. I conclude by suggesting what approaches communicators might take with these communities in the future toward engaging them in making the behavior changes that are necessary to mitigate the human contribution to climate change.

Subject Term

Rhetoric

Subject Term

Technical Communication

Shirley, Beth J.

Colton, Jared

Utah State University

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y