Is the Earth an optical medium? An interview with Chris Russill

A discussion between Canadian media theorist Chris Russill, associate professor at Carleton University, and Kate Maddalena, assistant professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, articulates Russill's work in terms of current conversations in media-related cultural studies. Russill uses media theory, particularly the intersecting lineages of Michel Foucault, Harold Innis, and Friedrich Kittler, to describe planetary media that record, store, and transmit light. He then discusses implications for the technical media apparatus being created, largely in earth systems sciences, to read, process, and deploy appropriate action in response to the same. The conception of earth as optical medium affords insight into the power politics of ozone holes, climate change, the photosynthetic machines of science fiction, and sunscreen

Epistemic geographies of climate change: science, space and politics

Anthropogenic climate change has been presented as the archetypal global problem, identified by the slow work of assembling a global knowledge infrastructure, and demanding a concertedly global political response. But this ‘global’ knowledge has distinctive geographies, shaped by histories of exploration and colonialism, by diverse epistemic and material cultures of knowledge-making, and by the often messy processes of linking scientific knowledge to decision-making within different polities. We suggest that understanding of the knowledge politics of climate change may benefit from engagement with literature on the geographies of science. We review work from across the social sciences which resonates with geographers’ interests in the spatialities of scientific knowledge, to build a picture of what we call the epistemic geographies of climate change. Moving from the field site and the computer model to the conference room and international political negotiations, we examine the spatialities of the interactional co-production of knowledge and social order. In so doing, we aim to proffer a new approach to the intersections of space, knowledge and power which can enrich geography’s engagements with the politics of a changing climate

Climate change tipping points: Origins, precursors, and debates

The article reviews the origins, precursors, and main proponents of climate change tipping points, and the debates that the tipping point concept has occasioned. The importance of dynamical systems theory, GAIA theory, and abrupt climate change to the main proponents of tipping point warning systems is noted and situated in historical context. The 'semantic confusion' that animates contemporary debates, it is suggested, results not simply from a narrow conception of tipping points, but from inattention to the way metaphor was used to reshape climate policy

Through a public darkly: Reconstructing pragmatist perspectives in communication theory

This article aims to retrieve the problem-responsive dimension of pragmatist theories in their relevance for the reconceptualization of public participation in communication theory. This dimension is central to pragmatist perspectives on the formation and functioning of publics and I propose that we reconstruct pragmatism as a tradition of communication theory in light of this fact. First, I reexamine the historical emergence of pragmatism in communication theory and I suggest James Carey was unable to challenge positivism or objectivism from within a pragmatist tradition. Second, I retrieve John Dewey's account of inquiry in a manner anticipating its implications for his theory of publics. Third, I resituate the Dewey-Lippmann debate within the context of a pragmatist tradition to demonstrate how deeply their differences turn on problem formulation. In conclusion, I connect the pragmatist tradition to contemporary work on problematization to address the limitations of each perspective

The ideology of the epidemic

In recent years, epidemiology has made a leap from specialized literature to popular discourse. Thanks in part to Malcolm Gladwell's bestselling treatment of "social epidemics," The Tipping Point, nearly every facet of social and political life-from fashion trends and crime waves to global warming and obesity rates-has been described as an epidemic. This paper explores the rise of an "epidemiological imaginary" in which the language of epidemiology proves increasingly persuasive as a way to understand social and political life. This paper explains this imaginary as a reaction to widespread destabilizations of social space, and examines the implicit and explicit political consequences of this way of seeing the world. Ultimately, we argue that the metaphorics of infection resonates with the experience of globalization, but that its political effects depend on its ability to intermix with more concrete political ideologies