Ecological Metaphor Research Articles

An Eco-linguistic Analysis of Urban Landscape and Social Critique in James Joyce's Dubliners

The main objective of this research is to revisit Stibbe (2015) framework of Eco-linguistics where he believes that it analyses language to reveal the stories we live by, judges those stories from an ecological perspective, resists damaging stories and contributes to the search for new stories to live by. This study examines James Joyce's Dubliners through an eco-linguistic perspective, focusing on the interplay between language, environment, and social critique. The detailed descriptions of Dublin's urban landscape and ecological symbols reflect the characters' inner lives and critique early 20th-century social conditions. The analysis draws on theoretical contributions from eco -linguistics and environmental criticism, emphasizing the use of linguistic landscapes and ecological metaphors to convey themes of stagnation, aspiration, and interconnectedness. By immersing the reader in the physical and social environments of Dublin, Joyce's language deepens empathy for the characters and enhances understanding of broader socio-environmental issues.

To change or not to change: Transformations of ecological metaphors in Chinese government microblogs

To change or not to change: Transformations of ecological metaphors in Chinese government microblogs

Interwoven ecological metaphors in the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s 7th March 1971 speech discourse: An eco-critical exegesis

Interwoven ecological metaphors in the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s 7th March 1971 speech discourse: An eco-critical exegesis

‘Volviendo a Vivir’ (coming back to life): Urban trauma, activism and building emancipatory futures

This paper engages recent writing on urban trauma, exploring its connection with the gendered forms of activism that displaced women practise as they seek to rebuild more emancipatory urban futures. Their activisms are situated in the context of multiple, ongoing and intersecting forms of violence from intimates, armed groups and the state, including institutional neglect (in and of the city) that is racialised and gendered. We draw on participatory action research undertaken with women in the Colombian cities of Bogotá and Medellín. Using creative audio-visual methods over several months, women co-researchers produced a documentary in which they chart the ways that they claim spaces of the city inside and outside their homes. We draw particular attention here to the temporal dimension of urban trauma as it intersects with migrant women’s spatial biographies; this has consequences for their activisms which also transcend the sites and scales of public and private spheres, national and global crises and individual and community responses. We argue that it is the gradually accruing and multiplying character of violence and trauma which in turn necessitates the gradual and multiscalar development of these activisms. The women used ecological metaphors of rooting and growth to explain how, through these activisms and directly informed by past traumatic events, they ‘come back to life’. Together, they build solidarity networks and alliances, and imagine and practise alternative feminist urban futures and modes of recovery in their new urban homes.

Bringing Ecological Urbanism and Urban Political Ecology to transformative visions of water sensitivity in cities

Ecological Urbanism and Water Sensitive Urban Design have a central contribution to make in protecting and caring for people, nature and water in cities but readings of Urban Political Ecology evidence how ecological metaphors in urban design can easily translate into discriminatory urban development processes. This paper posits that for UPE to become meaningful for urban design practice, it is necessary to move beyond a critique. Instead, the insights of UPE should be pro-actively mobilized to develop a new vision of water sensitivity. The paper therefore identifies ways in which the key learnings of the critical social sciences, namely UPE, can be mobilized to support Water Sensitive Urban Design practice. How can ecological urbanists imagine new, more politically astute, forms of water sensitive living, charting design processes that not just recognize but also actively question and challenge uneven socio-ecological dynamics? In answering this question, the goal of this article is to make use of critique from UPE to influence Ecological Urbanists' goals and activate their political alignment with agendas that prioritize social equity. In imagining a new form of WSUD, we tried as much as possible not to over-instrumentalize UPE by rejecting the suggestion that some UPE ‘lessons’ or ‘insights’ could simply be inserted into ecological urbanism. On a different direction, we argue for a different emphasis in WSUD that does not deny the causes of current environmental degradation, pollution and depletion but, on the contrary, actively takes issue with and challenges the extractive and exploitative roots of contemporary urbanization processes.

A Study of School Sport Ecological Metaphor Generation

Ecological metaphor as a cognitive approach with a unique embedded world,the expansion of the universal mapping characteristics of its cognitive scope is obviously enhanced,It can provide new growth momentum for the manifestation of the school sport contemporary connotation and spiritual essence. Based on the ecological metaphor theory, documentary method, logical reasoning method,the study of the school sports ecological knowledge is curated,to characterize the spiritual unity, positive correlation and rational functionality of the school sports ecological metaphorical cognitive paradigm, the ecological logic of "education within""inter-education""education together" in school sports is included,the three-dimensional core elements of "sports character- orientation literacy""health behavior-subject literacy""sports ability-pract ical literacy"are applied, to stimulate the ecological metaphor tension of flourishing branches and leaves,strong trunk and root system development, The school sports ecological cognitive ability is brought into the causal law of the expanded "nature-like view"order. The study found that the value elements generated by a rigorous ecological metaphor theory have more explanatory power in practice, and that these value elements demonstrate the co-cognitive ontology of re-cognition in a significant value way in the school sport field.

Afterword

Afterword

Ecological Metaphor in Shinkai Makoto’s Animated Film Tenki No Ko

This paper discusses a 2019 animated film entitled Tenki no Ko by Shinkai Makoto. This film is Shinkai’s most commercially successful work. Like other Shinkai’s works, Tenki no Ko talks about a romantic story between two teenage characters. The film is not only a work of fantasy or romance, but it also brings up natural elements that are expressed in the plot. Not only do the natural elements expressed in the film send the message of global warming, but they also show the reality of human life. Therefore, the analysis will be carried out with an epistemological method to prove the truth of the reality of life that the film expresses. The explanatory element applied to the object is a metaphorical expression of the scenes with reference to the multimodal metaphor theory through an ecological perspective. The analysis aims to trace ecological metaphorical expressions in the film. The findings show that the dominant metaphorical expression is “human life is like the weather” which can be called an ecological metaphor in connection with the ecological relationship between the human characters and their environment.

A Study of Ecological Metaphors in the Winter Olympic Games’ Promotional Film “Countdown: Beginning of Spring”

A Study of Ecological Metaphors in the Winter Olympic Games’ Promotional Film “Countdown: Beginning of Spring”

Integration of Industry and Education in Higher Vocational Education under Ecological Metaphor Methodology, Systematic Construction

China puts forward higher requirements for vocational education reform, the transformation and development of colleges and universities, and the training of applied talents. This paper to return to the ecological metaphor of higher vocational education fusion system, based on the "analogy source selection-metaphor mapping" metaphor process perspective, tracing the theory of logic starting point, for higher vocational education fusion system components deconstruction and the construction of higher vocational education fusion system.

Applying an Ecology Metaphor in a Mixed Methods Analysis of High School Science Program Infrastructure

A sequential exploratory mixed methods approach guided research on the science program infrastructures (SPI) of a sample of 28 high schools representing 1,370 high schools in a large southwestern state. Comparisons of SPI were made between and among schools representing highly successful schools of low (n=9) and high diversity (n=10) with less successful, high-diversity high schools (n=9). We include a discussion of the implications for including SPI as an important mediating layer within the ecology of high schools. The science program layer links administration with classrooms by employing efficient, equitable, and effective practices to advance the goals of science achievement and college readiness established at national and state levels for all high school graduates.

Religion and the Environment in the Rhetoric of Thomas Berry and Pope Francis

Thomas Berry, geologian, has been called one of the leading commentators on religion and the environment. This paper compares Berry’s writings with Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’. Pope Francis and Berry both use the root metaphor of integral ecology that implies a connection and reciprocity with the universe. However, Berry focuses on the rights of the earth that has existed billions of years before humankind. Humans are part of the earth community. Pope Francis focuses on social relations between human beings and the consequences for the environment because of egoism and begins his analysis with the past 20 centuries. Berry does not disagree but gives a special place to the earth and believes once respect is given to the earth social problems will be solved. Pope Francis wants to awaken a dialogue, where Berry believes we have become locked into reified stories, some of them from the Judeo-Christian interpretation of the Bible. Berry uses the metaphor of a “new story.” His story leads to cosmogenesis, or a new created order. For both writers, the challenge is implementation before it is too late for the human community.

Developing a coevolutionary account of innovation ecosystems

Whilst research in innovation ecosystems has focused on the connectivity, interdependence, and coevolution of actors, technologies, and institutions, there has been a gap in the study of these relationships between actors, with little explanation given on how mutually interdependent parties adapt. In this paper, we draw further on the ecological metaphor to present a view of innovation ecosystems as complex adaptive systems, where patterns of change emerge from microlevel coevolutionary interactions between actors. Drawing on this view, we explore related implications for our understanding of ecosystem boundaries, coevolutionary rules of interaction, and how ecosystems are energized through innovation. Specifically, we contribute to the literature by developing a novel account of innovation ecosystems where actors are bound together through changing modes of coevolution. Drawing on this account, we explore key theoretical and practical implications for our understanding of ecosystem actors, rules of interaction, and the wider innovation ecosystem. We conclude that innovation both maintains and drives change within the innovation ecosystem, by altering the microlevel rules of interaction and coevolutionary relationships between actors.

Innovation lives in ecotones, not ecosystems

Researchers tend to rely on metaphors to gain initial comprehension of complex systems. However, literature offers little guidance for this strategy. This paper presents criteria for using metaphors responsibly in this arena by applying them to evaluate ecological metaphors related to innovation systems. We develop the idea of innovation ecotone as the boundary between the knowledge ecosystem and the business ecosystem. We demonstrate why this ecotone better meets the criteria for a valuable metaphor for understanding innovation systems than the “innovation ecosystem” metaphor. This novel approach resolves many ambiguities and provides new implications for policymakers, particularly regarding the nature of innovation policy agencies.

Ecosystems, Design, and Glocalization: A multi-level study of Technovation

IntroductionBusiness ecosystems are prominent in both theory and practice. What began as an ecological metaphor (Moore, 1993) has now become an organizational form (Moore, 2006) for the complex social systems that drive product development, innovation, and new venture creation (Adner, 2017; Muegge & Mezen, 2017; Kapoor, 2018; Muegge et al. 2018). Nonetheless, much work yet

ECOLOGICAL METAPHORS IN DEBATES OVER LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGE POLITICS IN CATALONIA (1999-2009)

In the last two decades, the ecological approach has attracted the interest of Spanish and Catalan linguists. Nonetheless, until recently linguists stated a lack of connection of the fields of language ecology and language policy. The study of language and ecology has not yet become a matter of public interest; it only appears in scientific publications and the media using startling ecological metaphors such as threat of extinction, etc. This contribution analyses the language used both by professional linguists and laypeople in publications and in the public debate on the conflicts in Spanish and Catalan bilingualism in the decade before the constitutional and supreme courts ruled against the prevalence of the Catalan language in Catalonia (1999-2009). The decade analysed here can be characterized by a sensation of growing linguistic conflicts that manifested, for example, through heated debates over what Catalans perceived as life threatening for the Catalan language, on the one hand, and reactions such as demands for the introduction of additional teaching hours to prevent the alleged extinction of Spanish in Catalonia, on the other hand. The Catalan society is reliving the ghost of extinction of their language—probably reinforced by publications which denounce a continuous reduction of living space and the disappearance of more and more niches of the Catalan language. On the other hand, Castilian activists (and among them some linguists) maintain there is a battle the Castilian language in Catalonia has to win in order to survive the said-to-be ferocious reduction of its vital space and the asserted institutionalized suffocation or extermination of the Spanish language. The texts analysed in this contribution belong to a text series which regarding its content and aims corresponds to a reduced number of triggering reference texts. The aim is to determine the importance of the language of ecology in this field and the usage of these elements by both sides, those denouncing the threat of the Castilian language and those fearing the risk of extinction of the Catalan language. It will be shown that in the debate over the struggle for life of Catalan and Spanish in the Catalan speaking areas, the language of ecology and evolution is heavily used and that the re-contextualization of Catalan metaphors in the analysed Spanish texts is systematic.

ECOLOGICAL METAPHORS IN DEBATES OVER LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGE POLITICS IN CATALONIA (1999-2009)

In the last two decades, the ecological approach has attracted the interest of Spanish and Catalan linguists. Nonetheless, until recently linguists stated a lack of connection of the fields of language ecology and language policy. The study of language and ecology has not yet become a matter of public interest; it only appears in scientific publications and the media using startling ecological metaphors such as threat of extinction, etc. This contribution analyses the language used both by professional linguists and laypeople in publications and in the public debate on the conflicts in Spanish and Catalan bilingualism in the decade before the constitutional and supreme courts ruled against the prevalence of the Catalan language in Catalonia (1999-2009). The decade analysed here can be characterized by a sensation of growing linguistic conflicts that manifested, for example, through heated debates over what Catalans perceived as life threatening for the Catalan language, on the one hand, and reactions such as demands for the introduction of additional teaching hours to prevent the alleged extinction of Spanish in Catalonia, on the other hand. The Catalan society is reliving the ghost of extinction of their language—probably reinforced by publications which denounce a continuous reduction of living space and the disappearance of more and more niches of the Catalan language. On the other hand, Castilian activists (and among them some linguists) maintain there is a battle the Castilian language in Catalonia has to win in order to survive the said-to-be ferocious reduction of its vital space and the asserted institutionalized suffocation or extermination of the Spanish language. The texts analysed in this contribution belong to a text series which regarding its content and aims corresponds to a reduced number of triggering reference texts. The aim is to determine the importance of the language of ecology in this field and the usage of these elements by both sides, those denouncing the threat of the Castilian language and those fearing the risk of extinction of the Catalan language. It will be shown that in the debate over the struggle for life of Catalan and Spanish in the Catalan speaking areas, the language of ecology and evolution is heavily used and that the re-contextualization of Catalan metaphors in the analysed Spanish texts is systematic.

Where are the new languages?

The use of the ecology metaphor is widespread in language studies, particularly in discussions about language policy and planning and minority language maintenance. Attributed to Haugen (1972), the metaphor emphasises the context in which languages are used, providing a holistic view of language and communication practices in a particular environment. Some authors link language diversity explicitly to environmental protection, noting that biodiversity coincides with language diversity (Krauss, 1992; Nettle and Romaine, 2000; Skutnab-Kangas, Maffi, and Harmon, 2003). The ecology metaphor seems to be linked mainly to the conservation of minoritized languages. In this article the argument is put forward that we need to recognise the limits of this metaphor where newly emerging languages are concerned. The implicit metaphor in the term ‘language ecology’ depends on an understanding of the natural world, so it can be argued that just as new species and new habitats are being discovered in the natural world, new languages should be acknowledged as part of the language landscape. Using the example of Sepitori and other urban varieties in South Africa, the article supports the recognition of newly emerging languages because it has important implications for education and for the potential of translanguaging classroom practices.

The tree of community knowledge and engagement

Deep-seated educational discourses have blamed low-income communities for their youth’s lack of high school completion. These deficit discourses reflect top–down knowledge hierarchies and a lack of knowledge democracy in education (de Sousa Santos 2007; Hall & Tandon 2017; Visvanathan 2009), and they are in need of critical and diverse knowledge reckoning by low-income communities themselves. This article relays how a community-university participatory action research (PAR) partnership became a dynamic site of knowledge democracy from which to counter and transform deficit-based knowledge systems imposed on economically disadvantaged communities. Steeped in the generative enactments of PAR, storytelling, ecological metaphor, strength-based approaches and the arts, this article explores a low-income/social housing community’s knowledge practices that are energising and growing its community power to support the success of their youth in school. These seven knowledge practices are narrated through the ecological metaphor of trees, specifically via a co-constructed PAR team narrative called the Tree of Community Knowledge and Engagement.
 In the telling and retelling of this counternarrative-in-the-making, this article embodies knowledge democracy. Here, community members’ energising knowledge practices are recognised as invaluable forms of everyday educational knowing and leadership for their youth. This article further explores three broad ways of knowing that reside within and across community members’ seven knowledge practices: lived knowing, interconnected knowing and participatory/power-in-relation knowing. The three community ways of knowing illustrate how the community is growing its power to support youth’s success via a transformative educational worldview, from which other schools and universities could learn and, indeed, thrive.

Archival Mocking As Feminist Praxis: A Rhetorical Repurposing of A Vindication of the Rights of Brutes

My ironic rereading of Thomas Taylor’s Vindication of the Rights of Brutes accomplishes five tasks: First, I provide readers with an introduction to Thomas Taylor (one of protofeminist Mary Wollstonecraft’s harshest critics) and the satiric text he wrote specifically to undermine her. Second, I assess how the inherent instability of textual meaning provides a rationale for ironically reclaiming a text in the service of feminist emancipation (and, in the case of Taylor’s Vindication, animal emancipation). Third, I offer the ecological metaphor of “repurposing” as justification for what I call “mocking as method.” Fourth, using this ironic methodology, I ironize Taylor’s already-ironic Vindication by reading it literally, thus rhetorically repurposing Taylor’s textual garbage into a coherent vegan ecofeminist argument for animal rights. Finally, I theorize mocking as method as a rhetorical tool suitable not only for advancing vegan ecofeminist argumentation, but also for feminist criticism writ large. By attending to the instability of meaning in a text’s ever-changing contexts, mocking as method moves critics from simply trashing a garbage text toward rhetorically repurposing it to advance arguments for social justice. If done well, this technique not only avoids wasting a text but can empower the marginalized and contribute to the composition of complex, sustainable rhetorical canons.