The Power of Language in Shaping Sustainability
When you hear the word “sustainability,” what comes to mind? Perhaps images of green forests and rolling hills, or maybe you think of cutting-edge technologies that harness renewable energy sources. Research repeatedly shows that sustainability is primarily associated with the environment and ecology: consider the word cloud below (source). But it is about so much more than that.
The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals reflect this broader understanding. Sustainability is about ensuring the wellbeing of our planet as well as its people, promoting gender equality, a decent work environment and productive employment, fostering responsible consumption, and building sustainable, democratic communities. And it all starts with education – educating ourselves and others about the issues that matter, and inspiring action towards positive change.
In this process, communication is crucial. The way we communicate has the power to shape our understanding of the world, to influence our attitudes and behaviors, and to inspire action towards a sustainable future. Words and images ‘talk’ our realities into being. The language we use creates frames of interpretation about urgency, seriousness, and consequently affect our willingness to act. It is not surprising that the climate crisis has been dubbed as a major communications failure.
That’s why linguists and discourse analysts need to be part of the conversation about sustainability efforts. By working together with other disciplines, we can show how language and images frame societal issues. Our work can shed light on how specific communication strategies influence attitudes and behaviors towards sustainability issues and promote more effective communication strategies that lead to positive change: whether it has to do with life below water, on land, at work, or sustainable communities.
We invite you to our upcoming series about why language and and visual communication matter. Follow along as we share scholarly work, surprising examples, and specific cases that highlight the importance of #language #multimodality and #discourse for all #sustainable development goals.
Join us at RESPONSUS (Responsibility, Language and Communication) group and follow the Agricola School for Sustainable Development for further info.