Becoming Ecological: Navigating Language and Meaning for Our Planet's Future

Our lives are profoundly connected to the planet’s unfolding ecological crisis, and the language we use―our words, stories, conversations, and beliefs―determines our ability to respond.
Becoming Ecological offers a fresh and empowering perspective on the natural world by insisting that our relationship with language can transform issues of sustainability and environmental catastrophe. The book explores how language, meaning, and communication can help us in the ongoing process of “becoming ecological” in our daily lives, encouraging us to listen, relate, and act with greater awareness. Language and literacy experts, Derek Gladwin and Kedrick James subvert the norms of focusing on data and policy in conversations surrounding climate change, and instead centre communication and dialogue as the catalyst for ecological transformation. A powerful and unprecedented reframing – they argue that language has the profound ability to renew our personal and social awareness and steer the course of our future as a society.
Drawing from various views on relationships, values, and responsibility, as well as topics like AI, food, compost, sound, economics, improvisation, extinction, climate anxiety, and even the nature of reality, Becoming Ecological is a hopeful invitation to engage with the world differently. Through everyday experiences, this book inspires readers to consider other perspectives, participate more playfully, and spark lasting ecological change.

Derek Gladwin is a professor of education and co-director of the Systems Beings Lab at the University of British Columbia.

Kedrick James is a Professor of Language and Literacy Education and Director of the School of Education at the University of British Columbia Okanagan.