Ecosophy
What is an ecosophy?
To me, an ecosophy is a set of guiding principles that help me feel anchored as I navigate and evolve in my analyses. I recognise that as a researcher, I am ever-changing and constantly moving, and while my ecosophy provides a sense of stability, it too is evolving, albeit more slowly. This dynamic allows me to maintain my bearings without feeling lost in the unraveling of discourse.
I base my understanding of ecosophy on that of Stibbe’s (2021: 78):
“I realised that it’s essential for ecolinguists to reflect on the philosophical foundations of their criticism and establish a clear ecological philosophy (or ecosophy) to judge discourses against. Ecosophy is Arne Naess’s term to describe an explicit enumeration of values and assumptions about what matters, who matters, what facts about the world are to be assumed and what we should do (Naess 1995: 8). An ecosophy necessarily, by definition, includes consideration of not only humans but other species and the physical environment. Of course, anyone analysing texts with an ecological sensibility will have their own ecological philosophy, but I suggest that it’s important to reflect on it, make it explicit, and to develop it over time as we read more, analyse more data, and have more direct experience of the world.”
Stibbe, A. (2021). Ecolinguistics as a transdisciplinary movement and a way of life. In Allison Burkette & Tamara Warhol (eds), Crossing Borders, Making Connections: Interdisciplinarity in Linguistics, pp 71–88. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501514371