Social and Behavioral Sciences | Open Access Articles

Beware The Whine Of The Privileged, Jnan A. Blau, John T. Warren

Communication Studies

At the annual meeting of the National Communication Association in November of 2010, John and I presented a co-authored, performed script as part of a panel entitled "Complicating Performances of Privilege," sponsored by the Performance Studies Division. We had conceived and proposed the panel ourselves. The panel, in fact, had come into being as a result of a series of conversations the two of us had been having, on and off, for a while, about matters of privilege. In and through our dialoguing, we were seeking to somehow balance the expression of our personal experiences (and frustrations) With the careful …

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Prolepsis And The Environmental Rhetoric Of Congressional Politics: Defeating The Climate Stewardship Act Of 2003, Richard Besel

Communication Studies

As a device of argumentative anticipation, prolepsis use generally is considered a positive rhetorical strategy. Turning to the Climate Stewardship Act (CSA) of 2003, this article contributes to our understanding of environmental communication, political argumentation, and rhetorical theory by examining how proleptic miscalculation can actually produce devastating consequences against one’s cause when used as a source of invention. Proponents of the CSA relied on creating proleptic arguments grounded in a scientific understanding of climate change to such an extent that they mistakenly downplayed the economic arguments against the Act. This orchestrated miscalculation was encouraged and strengthened by key US senators. …

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