Journal of Applied Communication Research, Feb 1, 2012
ABSTRACT This four-year participant observation study of a “good neighbor” campaign aimed at chem... more ABSTRACT This four-year participant observation study of a “good neighbor” campaign aimed at chemical releases from a plastics plant in southwest Ohio investigates the role that health discourses play in environmental health disputes. Environmental health activists defined health, attributed illness causation, and narrated risk in ways that resisted dominant approaches to health, science, and corporate issues management. Those constructions were contested in everyday interactions with neighbors, corporate management, and regulators. The research found that neighbors’ biographical health narratives politicized risk in ways that aided the negotiation of emissions reductions, but individualized, passive, and technocratic approaches to health risks presented barriers to fully understanding the health effects of chemical emissions. The study demonstrates the need for campaign practitioners to raise critical public awareness of taken-for-granted health beliefs, and for greater involvement of academics in promoting democratic scientific methods.
Medical organizations such as hospitals, clinics, HMOs, and pharmaceutical companies often take c... more Medical organizations such as hospitals, clinics, HMOs, and pharmaceutical companies often take center stage in discussions about health and organiza-tional communication. The 2009-2010 US health care debates further focused our attention on medical care as a ...
Given the importance of local organizing to environmental health advocacy and activism, we need m... more Given the importance of local organizing to environmental health advocacy and activism, we need more understanding of how neighbors communicate about health risks. Individual residents in a neighborhood can be agents of social change, communicating about common health concerns and ways to cope with them, potentially leading to health activism. In this study, we used a grounded theory approach to analyze Pennsylvania residents' (N = 407) responses to open-ended questions that asked their thoughts on engaging in conversations with neighbors about the risk of lead exposure. Our findings describe (a) what respondents would want to share with neighbors about health risks and how they would communicate with their neighbors, (b) what actions they would like to promote to neighbors, and (c) what additional factors would facilitate conversations with neighbors. Based on the critical examination of the findings, we discuss communication strategies that can motivate health activism to bring about social structural changes.
The Routledge Companion to Alternative Organization, 2014
In this chapter, we investigate the potential of the transition movement to transform communities... more In this chapter, we investigate the potential of the transition movement to transform communities through bottom-up, democratic organizing and resist dominant discourses and relations of power that support neo-liberal conceptions of economic growth and deny the environmental consequences of late capitalism. Although several critiques of the transition movement focus on what they cast as the inherent limitations of eco-localism as a form of meaningful resistance to capitalism, often from an explicitly socialist point of view (e.g. Albo,2009), our point of departure is relatively pragmatic. It is well established that all social movements struggle with issues of democracy, power and scale (Tarrow, 2005), and like other movements and practices discussed in this volume such as alternative food reclamation, non-commodified labour practice and alterglobalisation, the transition movement faces similar issues. In order to prevent critical attention to this social movement lapsing into disengagement, our approach in this chapter is deliberately affirmative and our assessment is aimed at understanding the potential of the movement as well identifying issues and challenges it may face. Accordingly, we discuss how the transition initiatives movement attempts to be simultaneously responsive to current global environmental and economic crises, while also engaging substantively and deeply with issues and dilemmas of democracy. After briefl y describing the transition movement, we examine how it has constituted resilience as a key responsive principle. We argue that the movement’s conceptualization of resilience challenges increasingly popular individualistic and neo-liberal articulations of the term, with signifi cant implications for sustainability organizing. Following this, we discuss some enduring democratic principles of alternative organizing that are also evident in the transition movement. We highlight some pragmatic responses to common organizing tensions that may allow transition towns to balance imperatives for participation and material outcomes, which in turn may enable the movement to scale up over time.
It is time to move past the words—the well-crafted statements circulated by groups and organizati... more It is time to move past the words—the well-crafted statements circulated by groups and organizations across the academy, the scholarly writing as displacement, the formal and informal critiques—as if they had some recognizable impact. Each of these rhetorical moves can be valuable in helping to effect larger cultural and structural shifts. Yet, alone, a variety of evidence suggests that these forms of communication fail at effecting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Therefore, through our varied areas of research and lived work experiences, we focus attention toward actions as sites of power and potential: (a) in faculty emotional labor and work (McLeod), (b) at various levels of university administration and structural change (Ashcraft and Allen), (c) in the time-based practices associated with the ways we teach and mentor graduate students (Ballard), and (d) in our corpus of scholarship (Ganesh and Zoller).
Emerging Perspectives in Health Communication, 2009
This volume provides the theoretical, methodological, and praxis-driven issues in research on int... more This volume provides the theoretical, methodological, and praxis-driven issues in research on interpretive, critical, and cultural approaches to health communication. It includes an international collection of contributors, and highlights non-traditional (non-Western) perspectives on health communication.
As the number of workplace health initiatives grows, so does the variety of programming. This stu... more As the number of workplace health initiatives grows, so does the variety of programming. This study examines a fitness apparel company’s attempts to promote a fitness culture through a particular brand of “extreme” fitness known as CrossFit. CrossFit is an intense fitness regimen that has generated controversy with a cult-like reputation. We looked at the evangelical promotion of CrossFit as a new corporate wellness initiative. Based on interviews and participant observations, we used a critical-interpretive lens to understand employee reactions to the extreme wellness initiative. The evangelical introduction of this program by management led to high rates of participation, influencing employee perceptions of health, fitness, and identity. Yet, we also found that employee resistance emerged, which helped to mark the limits of this managerial intervention in workplace fitness. Ultimately, the study advocates for more co-construction of workplace wellness initiatives.
Health activists and health social movements have transformed medical treatment, promoted public ... more Health activists and health social movements have transformed medical treatment, promoted public health policies, and extended civil rights for people with illness and disability. This essay explores health activism that targets corporate-generated illness and risk in order to understand the unique communicative challenges involved in this area of contention. Arguing for greater critical engagement with policy, the article integrates policy research with social movements, subpolitics, and issue management literature. Drawing from activist discourse and multidisciplinary research, the article describes how a wide array of groups groups build visibility for corporate health effects, create the potential for networking and collaboration, and politicize health by attributing illness to corporate behaviors. The discussion articulates the implications of this activism for health communication theory, research, and practice.
We are colleagues in a generalist communication department that has a depth of faculty in health ... more We are colleagues in a generalist communication department that has a depth of faculty in health communication. This depth creates potential for collaboration, but we have observed that our different theoretical and methodological approaches (e.g., post-positivist, rhetorical, critical-cultural, critical-interpretive) can make collaboration challenging. Thus, participating in the 2013 NCA discussion panel about the emergence of rhetorical studies of health, science, and medicine proved to be a good opportunity for us to have an in-depth conversation about our disciplinary assumptions. We both enjoyed the discussion immensely, but we found that Heather, who uses critical-interpretive approaches, had a very different reaction to the event than did John, who hails from the rhetoric of science. Whereas John was quite comfortable with the disciplinary boundaries drawn by the development of a unique area of study tentatively labeled “Rhetoric of Health and Medicine,” Heather had concerns. John recently published with Condit and Winderman about rhetorical work examining public understandings of science, health, and medicine (Condit, Lynch, & Winderman, 2012). Heather organized a 2005 NCA pre-conference and wrote a resulting essay in 2008 with Kline (Zoller & Kline, 2008), and co-edited a book with Dutta (Zoller & Dutta, 2008) about qualitative approaches to health communication that integrated interpretive research (e.g., ethnographic, interviewing, textual analysis), rhetorical approaches, and critical research under the rubric of qualitative approaches to health communication.
Co-op Cincy is an incubator of worker- and community-owned cooperatives, including the farm and f... more Co-op Cincy is an incubator of worker- and community-owned cooperatives, including the farm and food hub Our Harvest. The incubator is part of the innovative 1worker1vote.org network of unionized worker cooperatives stemming from a partnership between the Spanish Mondragon Cooperatives and the United States Steelworkers. This Community Case Study examines Co-Op Cincy’s food sector organizing as an example of resistance to the industrial, corporate food system. Their hybrid and experimental approach creatively re-imagines both cooperative ownership and localist food systems. Whereas some local efforts fail to address questions of social justice or drift from social justice missions, this essay describes how Co-Op Cincy and Our Harvest 1) define their social justice goals in pursuit of locally rooted ownership, 2) raise consciousness about the connections among food systems and racial and class disparities as well as the need for sustainability, solidarity, and democratic ownership, a...
The Equitable Food Initiative (EFI) is a third-party certification program seeking to improve agr... more The Equitable Food Initiative (EFI) is a third-party certification program seeking to improve agricultural working conditions as well as food safety practices, environmental stewardship, and farm viability. The initiative uses innovative cross-functional labor-management teams to promote compliance with EFI standards and advocate for worker interests. Based on focus groups, interviews, and observations at five EFI-certified operations in the U.S. and Mexico, we describe how farms implemented the participatory system and the degree of involvement and influence the teams achieved. We elucidate how organizational dynamics generally associated with concertive control instead contributed to logics of collective advocacy. Theoretical implications address debates about (a) worker participation and empowerment, (b) corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate accountability, and third-party auditing, and (c) positive deviance and critical praxis. Practical insights can guide EFI operati...
Journal of Applied Communication Research, Feb 1, 2012
ABSTRACT This four-year participant observation study of a “good neighbor” campaign aimed at chem... more ABSTRACT This four-year participant observation study of a “good neighbor” campaign aimed at chemical releases from a plastics plant in southwest Ohio investigates the role that health discourses play in environmental health disputes. Environmental health activists defined health, attributed illness causation, and narrated risk in ways that resisted dominant approaches to health, science, and corporate issues management. Those constructions were contested in everyday interactions with neighbors, corporate management, and regulators. The research found that neighbors’ biographical health narratives politicized risk in ways that aided the negotiation of emissions reductions, but individualized, passive, and technocratic approaches to health risks presented barriers to fully understanding the health effects of chemical emissions. The study demonstrates the need for campaign practitioners to raise critical public awareness of taken-for-granted health beliefs, and for greater involvement of academics in promoting democratic scientific methods.
Medical organizations such as hospitals, clinics, HMOs, and pharmaceutical companies often take c... more Medical organizations such as hospitals, clinics, HMOs, and pharmaceutical companies often take center stage in discussions about health and organiza-tional communication. The 2009-2010 US health care debates further focused our attention on medical care as a ...
Given the importance of local organizing to environmental health advocacy and activism, we need m... more Given the importance of local organizing to environmental health advocacy and activism, we need more understanding of how neighbors communicate about health risks. Individual residents in a neighborhood can be agents of social change, communicating about common health concerns and ways to cope with them, potentially leading to health activism. In this study, we used a grounded theory approach to analyze Pennsylvania residents' (N = 407) responses to open-ended questions that asked their thoughts on engaging in conversations with neighbors about the risk of lead exposure. Our findings describe (a) what respondents would want to share with neighbors about health risks and how they would communicate with their neighbors, (b) what actions they would like to promote to neighbors, and (c) what additional factors would facilitate conversations with neighbors. Based on the critical examination of the findings, we discuss communication strategies that can motivate health activism to bring about social structural changes.
The Routledge Companion to Alternative Organization, 2014
In this chapter, we investigate the potential of the transition movement to transform communities... more In this chapter, we investigate the potential of the transition movement to transform communities through bottom-up, democratic organizing and resist dominant discourses and relations of power that support neo-liberal conceptions of economic growth and deny the environmental consequences of late capitalism. Although several critiques of the transition movement focus on what they cast as the inherent limitations of eco-localism as a form of meaningful resistance to capitalism, often from an explicitly socialist point of view (e.g. Albo,2009), our point of departure is relatively pragmatic. It is well established that all social movements struggle with issues of democracy, power and scale (Tarrow, 2005), and like other movements and practices discussed in this volume such as alternative food reclamation, non-commodified labour practice and alterglobalisation, the transition movement faces similar issues. In order to prevent critical attention to this social movement lapsing into disengagement, our approach in this chapter is deliberately affirmative and our assessment is aimed at understanding the potential of the movement as well identifying issues and challenges it may face. Accordingly, we discuss how the transition initiatives movement attempts to be simultaneously responsive to current global environmental and economic crises, while also engaging substantively and deeply with issues and dilemmas of democracy. After briefl y describing the transition movement, we examine how it has constituted resilience as a key responsive principle. We argue that the movement’s conceptualization of resilience challenges increasingly popular individualistic and neo-liberal articulations of the term, with signifi cant implications for sustainability organizing. Following this, we discuss some enduring democratic principles of alternative organizing that are also evident in the transition movement. We highlight some pragmatic responses to common organizing tensions that may allow transition towns to balance imperatives for participation and material outcomes, which in turn may enable the movement to scale up over time.
It is time to move past the words—the well-crafted statements circulated by groups and organizati... more It is time to move past the words—the well-crafted statements circulated by groups and organizations across the academy, the scholarly writing as displacement, the formal and informal critiques—as if they had some recognizable impact. Each of these rhetorical moves can be valuable in helping to effect larger cultural and structural shifts. Yet, alone, a variety of evidence suggests that these forms of communication fail at effecting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Therefore, through our varied areas of research and lived work experiences, we focus attention toward actions as sites of power and potential: (a) in faculty emotional labor and work (McLeod), (b) at various levels of university administration and structural change (Ashcraft and Allen), (c) in the time-based practices associated with the ways we teach and mentor graduate students (Ballard), and (d) in our corpus of scholarship (Ganesh and Zoller).
Emerging Perspectives in Health Communication, 2009
This volume provides the theoretical, methodological, and praxis-driven issues in research on int... more This volume provides the theoretical, methodological, and praxis-driven issues in research on interpretive, critical, and cultural approaches to health communication. It includes an international collection of contributors, and highlights non-traditional (non-Western) perspectives on health communication.
As the number of workplace health initiatives grows, so does the variety of programming. This stu... more As the number of workplace health initiatives grows, so does the variety of programming. This study examines a fitness apparel company’s attempts to promote a fitness culture through a particular brand of “extreme” fitness known as CrossFit. CrossFit is an intense fitness regimen that has generated controversy with a cult-like reputation. We looked at the evangelical promotion of CrossFit as a new corporate wellness initiative. Based on interviews and participant observations, we used a critical-interpretive lens to understand employee reactions to the extreme wellness initiative. The evangelical introduction of this program by management led to high rates of participation, influencing employee perceptions of health, fitness, and identity. Yet, we also found that employee resistance emerged, which helped to mark the limits of this managerial intervention in workplace fitness. Ultimately, the study advocates for more co-construction of workplace wellness initiatives.
Health activists and health social movements have transformed medical treatment, promoted public ... more Health activists and health social movements have transformed medical treatment, promoted public health policies, and extended civil rights for people with illness and disability. This essay explores health activism that targets corporate-generated illness and risk in order to understand the unique communicative challenges involved in this area of contention. Arguing for greater critical engagement with policy, the article integrates policy research with social movements, subpolitics, and issue management literature. Drawing from activist discourse and multidisciplinary research, the article describes how a wide array of groups groups build visibility for corporate health effects, create the potential for networking and collaboration, and politicize health by attributing illness to corporate behaviors. The discussion articulates the implications of this activism for health communication theory, research, and practice.
We are colleagues in a generalist communication department that has a depth of faculty in health ... more We are colleagues in a generalist communication department that has a depth of faculty in health communication. This depth creates potential for collaboration, but we have observed that our different theoretical and methodological approaches (e.g., post-positivist, rhetorical, critical-cultural, critical-interpretive) can make collaboration challenging. Thus, participating in the 2013 NCA discussion panel about the emergence of rhetorical studies of health, science, and medicine proved to be a good opportunity for us to have an in-depth conversation about our disciplinary assumptions. We both enjoyed the discussion immensely, but we found that Heather, who uses critical-interpretive approaches, had a very different reaction to the event than did John, who hails from the rhetoric of science. Whereas John was quite comfortable with the disciplinary boundaries drawn by the development of a unique area of study tentatively labeled “Rhetoric of Health and Medicine,” Heather had concerns. John recently published with Condit and Winderman about rhetorical work examining public understandings of science, health, and medicine (Condit, Lynch, & Winderman, 2012). Heather organized a 2005 NCA pre-conference and wrote a resulting essay in 2008 with Kline (Zoller & Kline, 2008), and co-edited a book with Dutta (Zoller & Dutta, 2008) about qualitative approaches to health communication that integrated interpretive research (e.g., ethnographic, interviewing, textual analysis), rhetorical approaches, and critical research under the rubric of qualitative approaches to health communication.
Co-op Cincy is an incubator of worker- and community-owned cooperatives, including the farm and f... more Co-op Cincy is an incubator of worker- and community-owned cooperatives, including the farm and food hub Our Harvest. The incubator is part of the innovative 1worker1vote.org network of unionized worker cooperatives stemming from a partnership between the Spanish Mondragon Cooperatives and the United States Steelworkers. This Community Case Study examines Co-Op Cincy’s food sector organizing as an example of resistance to the industrial, corporate food system. Their hybrid and experimental approach creatively re-imagines both cooperative ownership and localist food systems. Whereas some local efforts fail to address questions of social justice or drift from social justice missions, this essay describes how Co-Op Cincy and Our Harvest 1) define their social justice goals in pursuit of locally rooted ownership, 2) raise consciousness about the connections among food systems and racial and class disparities as well as the need for sustainability, solidarity, and democratic ownership, a...
The Equitable Food Initiative (EFI) is a third-party certification program seeking to improve agr... more The Equitable Food Initiative (EFI) is a third-party certification program seeking to improve agricultural working conditions as well as food safety practices, environmental stewardship, and farm viability. The initiative uses innovative cross-functional labor-management teams to promote compliance with EFI standards and advocate for worker interests. Based on focus groups, interviews, and observations at five EFI-certified operations in the U.S. and Mexico, we describe how farms implemented the participatory system and the degree of involvement and influence the teams achieved. We elucidate how organizational dynamics generally associated with concertive control instead contributed to logics of collective advocacy. Theoretical implications address debates about (a) worker participation and empowerment, (b) corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate accountability, and third-party auditing, and (c) positive deviance and critical praxis. Practical insights can guide EFI operati...
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