Winner of the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order 1992, Named New Options Best Political BookEconomist Herman Daly and theologian John Cobb, Jr., demonstrate how conventional economics and a growth-oriented industrial economy have led us to the brink of environmental disaster, and show
Communicating the Future: Solutions for Environment, Economy and Democracy
β Scribed by W. Lance Bennett
- Publisher
- Polity Press
- Year
- 2021
- Tongue
- English
- Leaves
- 213
- Category
- Library
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
β¦ Synopsis
We are facing an unprecedented environmental crisis. How can we communicate and act more effectively to make the political and economic changes required to survive and even thrive within the life-support capacities of our planet? This is the question at the heart of W. Lance Bennett's much-anticipated book. Bennett challenges readers to consider how best to approach the environmental crisis by changing how we think about the relationships between environment, economy, and democracy. He introduces a framework that citizens, practitioners, and scholars can use to evaluate common but unproductive communication that blocks thinking about change; develop more effective ways to define and approach problems; and design communication processes to engage diverse publics and organizations in developing understandings, goals, and political strategies. Until advocates develop economic programs with built-in environmental solutions, they will continue to lose policy fights. Putting "intersectional" communication into action requires acknowledging that communication is not only an exchange of messages, but an organizational process. Communicating the Future is important reading for students and scholars of media and communication, as well as general readers concerned about the environmental crisis.
β¦ Table of Contents
Cover
Title page
Copyright page
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Future is Now
Overview of the Book
1 Communicating Complex Problems
Language vs. Reality: Avoiding Solutions that Perpetuate Problems
Life in an Age of Magical Thinking
How Everyday Communication Logic Affects Thinking About Change
Recognize That the Future Starts Now
Be Careful with Categories
Learn to Think at the Intersection of Categories
Avoid Backwards Thinking that Gets Us Working the Wrong Ends of Problems
Notice How Facts and Values Are Used Selectively to Support Each Other
Think Critically about βBeing Realisticβ
Using Communication Logics to Decode Everyday Communication
Why So Much Everyday Communication Is Unhelpful
Imagining a Different World
The Politics Problem
The Idea-Flow Framework
Idea Production
Packaging Ideas
Networking Ideas
Political Uptake
2 Whatβs Missing in Environmental Communication?
Why Ideas Matter
The Fragmentation of Ideas in the Modern Environmental Movement
Competing Sources of Idea Production
Better Packaging for Alarms than Solutions
The Weak Networking of Environmental Ideas
The Limited Political Uptake of Real Solutions
The Pitfalls of Sustainable Development
3 Economy vs. Environment: Selling Predatory Economics
The Idea of Endless Growth
The Rise of Neoliberal Free-Market Mania
The Production of Neoliberal Ideas
Packaging Neoliberalism
Networking Neoliberalism
Political Uptake
The Problem of Post-Democracy
4 Democracy with a Future: Mobilizing Ideas and Opportunities for Change
The Political Future at a Crossroads
Some Political Lessons from the Rise of Neoliberalism
Lesson 1: The Coordinated Production of Alternative Ideas
Lesson 2: Packaging Ideas for Change
Lesson 3: Networking the Spread of Ideas
Lesson 4: Political Uptake and Institutional Embedding of Ideas and Values
Lesson 5: Taking Advantage of Political Opportunities
Seizing Opportunities for Change
5 Communicating Change: Attention, Amplification, and Organization
Making Sure the Contents Suit the Packaging
Shifting Attention to (Simpler) Ideas about Economic Change
Setting the Stage for Change: A Mindset for Developing Better Ideas
How Change Happens: Power, People, and Government
A Place to Start: Whatβs the Economy For?
Making the Idea-Flow Model Work
Improving Idea Production
Idea Packaging
Networking Ideas for Change
Political Uptake
Conclusion
Notes
Introduction: The Future is Now
1 Communicating Complex Problems
2 Whatβs Missing in Environmental Communication?
3 Economy vs. Environment: Selling Predatory Economics
4 Democracy with a Future: Mobilizing Ideas and Opportunities for Change
5 Communicating Change: Attention, Amplification, and Organization
Index
EULA
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