
A Place for Dialogue
Language, Land Use, and Politics in Southern Arizona
Sharon McKenzie Stevens(Author)
University of Iowa Press
Published on 15. March 2007
Book
Hardback
232 pages
978-1-58729-534-8 (ISBN)
Description
In ""A Place for Dialogue"", Sharon McKenzie Stevens views the contradictions and collaborations involved in the management of public land in southern Arizona - and by extension the entire arid West - through the lens of political rhetoric. Revealing the socioecological relationships among cattlemen and environmentalists as well as developers and recreationists, she analyzes the ways that language shapes landscape by shaping decisions about land use. Stevens focuses on the collaborative Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan initiated by Pima County, Arizona, the ubiquitous use of scientific argument to defend contradictory practices, and the construction and negotiation of rancher/environmentalist identities to illuminate both literally and metaphorically the dynamics of land use politics. Drawing specifically upon extensive interviews with a diverse array of agents on all sides of the debate - ranchers, environmentalists, scientists, land managers, government officials - on historical narratives, and on her own conflicting experiences as someone who grew up with those who work the western lands, she demonstrates that it is possible to use differences to solve, rather than to aggravate, the entrenched problems that bridge land and language. By integrating her richly textured case study of a fragile region with rhetorical approaches to narrative, science-based argument, and collective identities, Stevens makes a significant contribution to the fields of rhetoric, land management, and cultural studies.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Iowa
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
illustrations
ISBN-13
978-1-58729-534-8 (9781587295348)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Sharon McKenzie Stevens received her PhD in rhetoric, composition, and the teaching of English from the University of Arizona. She is a lecturer in the School of English and Media Studies at Massey University in Aotearoa/New Zealand.