Democracy, Borders and Public/Political Engagement: Challenges for Environmental Communication

Professor in Environmental Communication

The Department of Urban and Rural Development at SLU offers a strong social science research environment with its foundations in the research subjects environmental communication, rural development, landscape architecture and agrarian history. We are now seeking to recruit a professor and research leader to the Division of Environmental Communication. Environmental Communication is a subject within which we investigate the communicative aspects of environmental and sustainability issues. Here, communication is considered as co-construction of meaning rather than the transmitting of information. The Division for Environmental Communication conducts primarily qualitative social science research concerned with themes such as legitimacy, participation, power, resistance, conflict and learning in decision making, implementation and change processes from a communicative perspective. The research spans over a wide range of contexts such as nature conservation, forestry, food production, climate change, game management, mining and built environment. An important goal is that the research contributes to sustainable development and social change.

Subject area:

The subject area of the position covers communication in environmental and sustainability issues, with a focus on communication as co-construction of meaning, based on social science methodology.

Duties:

George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication seeks to hire a postdoctoral fellow to support its NSF-funded Climate Matters program.  Climate Matters is a highly successful climate change reporting resource program that currently serves 420 TV weathercasters in 120+ American media markets, and is responsible for a six-fold increase in on-air climate reporting by weathercasters over the last three years.  Over the next three years, Climate Matters will continue to support TV weathercasters, but will also extend further into the newsroom (TV, radio, print and digital newsrooms) by encouraging and enabling other local journalists to report local climate change stories.