In this dissertation, I make a theoretical exploration into the mass communication of ecological issues, a phenomenon bound to become increasingly important through the on-going dual process of economic-cum-ecological globalization and information revolution. Such an exploration is warranted, first, because, despite the highly visible coexistence of global warming and the digital divide on the same world-stage, sociohumanistic research generally has continued to focus on ecology and (mass) communication in their mutual separation. Since interconnections of ecology and communication have received attention from only a limited number of media analysts and environmentally sensitive journalists, mass communication of ecological issues is as yet an under-examined theme. Secondly, the scarce research on the topic - though it has occasionally been done and shared under the generalized rubric of environmental or ecological communication (EC) - actually amounts to little more than disparate case studies and empirical reports related to risk and hazard communication, disaster communication, environmental journalism, or science journalism. In other words, mainstream research on communication of ecological matters falls short of a theoretical exploration into the probable interfaces between ecology and communication, pointing to the research community's overall complacency with uncoordinated and narrowly-framed case studies. Furthermore, the majority of existing EC accounts represent a positivistic, solution provider's ideology, even though they are invested in the progressive cause of environmentalism. They generally accept the media as a probative solution to ecologically suspect acts of the State or corporate sector, and are not particularly invested in the speculative realm of possible silences that may characterize the communicative landscapes of global ecologies. I contend that the issues neglected by EC researchers have already been delved into independently - even though to unrelated ends - by thinkers from other more mature discourses such as communication systems theory, development studies, philosophy and sociology of technology, political theory, and cultural and literary theories. Engaging with selected contributions from the above discourses, and drawing from the approaches of critical traditionalism on one hand, and semiotics, on the other, I attempt to go beyond EC's erstwhile media focus by theorizing EC critically. As part of that effort, I postulate and develop upon the following analytical and theoretical axes: (1) technology; (2) the nation-state; and (3) and development. I devote exclusive sections to two of the above components: against the general background of development. / Ph. D.

Lärosäten uppmanas idag att föra in hållbar utveckling som en del av utbildningen, vilket ligger till grund för denna uppsats syfte. Högskolan i Halmstad upprättade år 2013 Utskottet för hållbar utveckling där ett av målen är att göra studenter och övrig personal medvetna om arbetet med hållbar utveckling. Uppsatsen är en kvalitativ studie som bygger på empiriskt insamlat material från intervjuer med medlemmar i utskottet för hållbar utveckling på ett Högskolan i Halmstad. Syftet med studien är att söka förståelse för de hinder och möjligheter som kan uppkomma i implementering av riktlinjer för en hållbar utveckling på ett lärosäte. I uppsatsen ställs frågan om hur medlemmarna i utskottet arbetar med hållbar utveckling. En kvalitativ metod har använts där det i intervjuerna framkommer några av de hinder och möjligheter som kan uppkomma i samband med implementeringen. Störst fokus ligger i att utifrån vår socialpsykologiska kunskap förstå den ekologiska kommunikationens betydelse, dels via relationen mellan texter och människa och dels mellan människor. Vi menar att det är kommunikationen som ligger till grund för samordning av handlingar. Uppsatsens teoretiska tyngdpunkt återfinns i Niklas Luhmanns systemteori, Dorothy Smiths institutionella etnografi och Johan Asplunds begrepp ”social responsivitet”. Resultatet visar att samordning lokalt delvis påverkas av translokal koordinering och att tolkning samt förståelse har betydande inverkan på samordningen av arbetet för främjandet av ekologisk medvetenhet. / Institutions are be/e/ing urged today to bring in sustainable development as part of the education, which is the foundation for this thesis purpose. University of Halmstad established in year 2013, the Sustainable Development Committee where one of the goals is to make students and staff aware of the work. We as students have never been in contact with the concept and from there have an interest in what social psychology can contribute to the expansion of sustainable development in an institution. The essay is based on a qualitative study based on empirical material collected from interviews with members of the Commission for Sustainable Development in an institution of higher learning. The purpose of the study is to seek an understanding of the barriers and opportunities that may arise in the implementation of guidelines for sustainable development at a higher education institution. The study gives an overview of some of the barriers and opportunities that arise in its implementation. The main focus lies in the basis of our social psychological knowledge to understand the ecological importance of communication, both through text and humans and between humans. We believe that it is the communication that is the basis for coordination of actions. The thesis theoretical emphasis is found in Niklas Luhmnnas system theory, Dorothy Smiths institutional ethnography and Johan Asplunds theory of ”social responsiveness”. The results show that coordination locally is partially affected by translocal coordination and interpretation, and understanding has a significant impact on the coordination of efforts to promote ecological awareness.

Verslo aplinkos pokyčiai, skatina įmonių komunikacijos su tikslinėmis auditorijomis pokyčius. Socialiai atsakinga įmonės komunikacija yra priemonė, leidžianti užsitarnauti didesnį visuomenės pritarimą įmonės vykdomai veiklai. Padidėjęs visuomenės dėmesys įmonių atliekamoms funkcijoms, tampa stimulu imtis socialiai atsakingų veiklų. Augantis visuomenės susidomėjimas ekologija, skatina įmones vis didesnį dėmesį skirti ekologinei atsakomybei, todėl darbe nagrinėjama ekologinės veiklos komunikacija, kaip svarbi visuomenės informavimo, lojalumo skatinimo, įvaizdžio gerinimo ir įmonės veiklos legitimacijos priemonė. Magistro darbo tikslas - išanalizuoti Lietuvos prekybos tinklų ekologinės veiklos komunikacijos sąsajas su klientų įmonės ekologinės veiklos vertinimu. Teorinėje darbo dalyje nagrinėjama darnaus vystymosi ir įmonių socialinės atsakomybės koncepcija, ĮSA teorijų raida, identifikuojami įmonių atsakomybės elementai. Toliau darbe analizuojamos įmonių ekologinės atsakomybės komunikacijos raiškos formos. Nagrinėjama sąveika tarp socialiai atsakingos įmonių komunikacijos ir palankaus visuomenės požiūrio į organizacijos veiklas. Tiriamojoje darbo dalyje, remiantis kokybine internetinių puslapių analize bei pusiau struktūruotais kokybiniais interviu su ekspertais, pateikiama Lietuvos didžiųjų prekybos centų socialiai atsakingos komunikacijos ir jos ekologinio aspekto analizė. Taip pat remiantis fokusuotų grupės diskusijų su klientais metu surinktais... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Business environment changes, stimulates the communication with target audiences change. Socially responsible company’s communication is a means of earning a greater public acceptance of the company's operations. Increased public awareness of corporate functions; it becomes a stimulus to socially responsible practices. The growing public interest in the environmental problems encourages companies to increasingly focus on environmental responsibility, and work the ecological business communication as an important public awareness, loyalty, and improve the image of the business means of legitimization. The aim of the Master's thesis is to analyze the trades between Lithuanian supermarkets ecological performance of communication and the links with the client company environmental performance evaluation. The theoretical part deals with sustainable development and corporate social responsibility, the concept of corporate social responsibility theories of evolution, identification of elements of corporate responsibility. Further analysis of the work of corporate environmental responsibility of communication forms of expression. It is examining the interaction between socially responsible corporate communication and public-friendly approach to the organization's activities. The exploratory part of the work on the basis of qualitative analysis of web pages and semi-structured qualitative interviews with experts of the Lithuanian supermarkets a socially... [to full text]

O propósito desta pesquisa é identificar o que ocorre na fronteira da comunicação entre a cultura corporativa e a cultura das redes digitais, com o pressuposto de que a lógica de controle das empresas cria um antagonismo com a tendência de descentralização comunicativa das redes digitais, e que esse antagonismo manifesta-se de forma mais aguda em situações de crise. Em nossa abordagem, pensamos a empresa como um fenômeno sistêmico complexo - e não mais como um ator que dialoga linear e unidirecionalmente com o consumidor - e as redes digitais como um fenômeno pós-sistêmico e \"não-controlável\" pelas empresas. As tecnologias digitais alteram nossa percepção, o sentido de conexão e nossa própria condição habitativa (o modo de estar no mundo). O social deixa de ser pensado como algo dado a priori, mas em construção (em permanente movimento) e formado por atores humanos e não humanos. As redes digitais são uma nova arquitetura da complexidade, uma hipercomplexidade. Trata-se de superar a ideia de comunicação como fluxo de informação, linear e frontal, típica da sociedade industrial, e substituí-la pela ideia de comunicação ecológica, que agrega humanos, tecnologias, dispositivos, informações, territórios, elementos inorgânicos, bancos de dados, etc. Nesse novo contexto, parece não mais fazer sentido distinguir espaços físicos e espaços informativos. Essa \"ecologia digital\" reconfigura a ação, não mais formada por um sujeito-ator interagindo com o exterior, mas organizada em rede, construída com base na complexidade das ações dos atores envolvidos. Seguindo um percurso histórico-teórico, buscamos reconstruir a formação e as influências do pensamento científico, dos impactos das descobertas das ciências naturais do início do século XX sobre as ciências humanas/sociais - com o surgimento da ideia sistêmica -, e da migração da complexidade sistêmica à complexidade reticular e suas narrativas, Teoria Ator-Rede e Atopia, fundamentos da metodologia da pesquisa empírica e da técnica de pesquisa Cartografia das Controvérsias, aplicada à controvérsia gerada nas redes pela contaminação do suco de maçã AdeS da empresa Unilever / The purpose of the research is to identify what occurs at the communication boundary between corporate culture and digital network culture with the assumption that companies\' control logic creates an antagonism to the tendency of communicative decentralization of digital networks and this antagonism is manifested most acutely in crisis situations. In our approach we think of the company as a complex systemic phenomenon - and not as an actor who dialogues linearly and unidirectionally with the consumer - and digital networks as a post-systemic phenomenon and \"non-controllable\" by companies. Digital technologies change our perception, sense of connection and our way of living or of being in the world. The social is no longer thought of as something given a priori but instead as under construction (in permanent movement) and formed by human and non-human actors. Digital networks are a new architecture of complexity; a hyper complexity. It is about to overcome the idea of communication as information flow, linear and frontal, typical of industrial society, and replace it with the idea of ecological communication, which aggregates human, technologies, devices, information, territories, databases, etc. In this new context it no longer makes sense to distinguish physical spaces and information spaces. This \"digital ecology\" reconfigures the action, no longer formed by a subject-actor interacting with the outside, but is instead organized in a network, built on the complexity of the actions of the involved actors. Following a historical-theoretical approach we seek to reconstruct the formation and the influences of scientific thought, the impact of natural science discoveries of the early twentieth century on the human and social sciences - with the emergence of systemic idea - and the migration from systemic complexity to reticular complexity and their narratives. The Theory of Actor-Network and the concept of \"Atopia\" were used in the methodological framework of the empirical research and the research technique \"Controversy Mapping\" was applied to analyze the debate generated in the networks about the contamination of the apple juice \"AdeS\", produced by the Unilever company.

O propósito desta pesquisa é identificar o que ocorre na fronteira da comunicação entre a cultura corporativa e a cultura das redes digitais, com o pressuposto de que a lógica de controle das empresas cria um antagonismo com a tendência de descentralização comunicativa das redes digitais, e que esse antagonismo manifesta-se de forma mais aguda em situações de crise. Em nossa abordagem, pensamos a empresa como um fenômeno sistêmico complexo - e não mais como um ator que dialoga linear e unidirecionalmente com o consumidor - e as redes digitais como um fenômeno pós-sistêmico e \"não-controlável\" pelas empresas. As tecnologias digitais alteram nossa percepção, o sentido de conexão e nossa própria condição habitativa (o modo de estar no mundo). O social deixa de ser pensado como algo dado a priori, mas em construção (em permanente movimento) e formado por atores humanos e não humanos. As redes digitais são uma nova arquitetura da complexidade, uma hipercomplexidade. Trata-se de superar a ideia de comunicação como fluxo de informação, linear e frontal, típica da sociedade industrial, e substituí-la pela ideia de comunicação ecológica, que agrega humanos, tecnologias, dispositivos, informações, territórios, elementos inorgânicos, bancos de dados, etc. Nesse novo contexto, parece não mais fazer sentido distinguir espaços físicos e espaços informativos. Essa \"ecologia digital\" reconfigura a ação, não mais formada por um sujeito-ator interagindo com o exterior, mas organizada em rede, construída com base na complexidade das ações dos atores envolvidos. Seguindo um percurso histórico-teórico, buscamos reconstruir a formação e as influências do pensamento científico, dos impactos das descobertas das ciências naturais do início do século XX sobre as ciências humanas/sociais - com o surgimento da ideia sistêmica -, e da migração da complexidade sistêmica à complexidade reticular e suas narrativas, Teoria Ator-Rede e Atopia, fundamentos da metodologia da pesquisa empírica e da técnica de pesquisa Cartografia das Controvérsias, aplicada à controvérsia gerada nas redes pela contaminação do suco de maçã AdeS da empresa Unilever / The purpose of the research is to identify what occurs at the communication boundary between corporate culture and digital network culture with the assumption that companies\' control logic creates an antagonism to the tendency of communicative decentralization of digital networks and this antagonism is manifested most acutely in crisis situations. In our approach we think of the company as a complex systemic phenomenon - and not as an actor who dialogues linearly and unidirectionally with the consumer - and digital networks as a post-systemic phenomenon and \"non-controllable\" by companies. Digital technologies change our perception, sense of connection and our way of living or of being in the world. The social is no longer thought of as something given a priori but instead as under construction (in permanent movement) and formed by human and non-human actors. Digital networks are a new architecture of complexity; a hyper complexity. It is about to overcome the idea of communication as information flow, linear and frontal, typical of industrial society, and replace it with the idea of ecological communication, which aggregates human, technologies, devices, information, territories, databases, etc. In this new context it no longer makes sense to distinguish physical spaces and information spaces. This \"digital ecology\" reconfigures the action, no longer formed by a subject-actor interacting with the outside, but is instead organized in a network, built on the complexity of the actions of the involved actors. Following a historical-theoretical approach we seek to reconstruct the formation and the influences of scientific thought, the impact of natural science discoveries of the early twentieth century on the human and social sciences - with the emergence of systemic idea - and the migration from systemic complexity to reticular complexity and their narratives. The Theory of Actor-Network and the concept of \"Atopia\" were used in the methodological framework of the empirical research and the research technique \"Controversy Mapping\" was applied to analyze the debate generated in the networks about the contamination of the apple juice \"AdeS\", produced by the Unilever company.

Das Thema Nachhaltigkeit gewinnt deutlich an gesellschaftlicher und politischer Relevanz. Evidente naturwissenschaftliche und geisteswissenschaftliche Forschungen belegen die Notwendigkeit zum Handeln, Umsteuern und sofortigen Veränderungen. Dennoch ist Nachhaltigkeit fortlaufend mit Vorbehalten, Widerständen und Einwänden unterschiedlicher Art und Ausmaßes begleitet. Neben der hohen Kunst der Rhetorik kommt immer wieder Kampfrhetorik zur Anwendung, um evidente Forschungsergebnisse und belegbare Fakten auszuhebeln. Anhand der verschiedenen Themen der Nachhaltigkeit wird herausgearbeitet, wie für eine Transformation zur Nachhaltigkeit argumentiert und souverän mit Einwänden umgegangen werden kann. Dabei folgt die hohe Kunst der Kommunikation dem Prinzip Argumentation – Erwiderung – Erwiderung der Erwiderung. Es geht darum, auf selektiv gewählte, jedoch häufige Einwände so souverän wie möglich zu reagieren, gekonnt zu kontern und damit Nachhaltigkeit in der Argumentation stark zu machen. Diese Zusammenstellung bietet einen kompakten rhetorischen Leitfaden im Kontext der Entwicklung zur Nachhaltigkeit. / The topic of sustainability is clearly gaining social and political relevance. Evidence from the natural sciences and humanities demonstrates the need for action, change and immediate transformation. Nevertheless, sustainability is continuously accompanied by reservations, resistance and objections of various kinds and degrees. Battle rhetoric is repeatedly used to undermine evidenced research results and provable facts. Based on the various topics of sustainability, the paper shows how to argue for a transformation towards sustainability and how to confidently deal with objections. In doing so, the fine art of communication follows the principle of argumentation - reply - reply to the reply. The aim is to respond and counter to selectively chosen, but common objections as confidently as possible, and thus, to make sustainability strong in reasoning. This compilation offers a compact rhetorical guide in the context of the development towards sustainability.