Arran Stibbe: Econarrative: Ethics, ecology, and the search for new narratives to live by

Stories permeate our daily lives, and ecological stories wield the influence to shape individuals’ minds, which in turn shape their actions towards the ecosystem (Stibbe 2015, 2021). In the current era, characterized by a heightened ecological consciousness, Arran Stibbe’s (2024) new book, Econarrative: Ethics, ecology, and the search for new narratives to live by, is a timely publication. The author, Arran Stibbe, is a professor of ecological linguistics at the University of Gloucestershire. He is also the founder of the International Ecolinguistics Association (IEA). In this book, Stibbe (2024) introduces the concept of “econarrative” to depict its potential impact on shaping individuals’ environmental awareness. Econarrative refers to a narrative that involves not only humans but also other species and the physical environment in interaction with each other (p. 7). This book offers a well-defined, comprehensive, and coherent overview of econarratives, inspiring readers to recognize the ecological significance of these narratives, so it will be a new masterpiece in ecolinguistics.

The book unfolds in a clear chronological sequence. There are ten chapters in total. Excluding the introduction and conclusion, the first word of each chapter title from Chapters 2 to 9 sequentially begins with the following words: “Beginning”, “Identifying”, “Emplacing”, “Enchanting”, “Leading”, “Feeling”, “Persuading”, and “Ending”. Each of these chapters spotlights a specific theoretical dimension (activation, ecocultural identity, placefulness, wonder, ethics, emotional narrative, multimodal genres, and metaphor). The analytical discourses presented in these chapters are organized chronologically, which are from the creation myths in various cultures to seeking wisdom for our present-day actions. This thoughtful organization is instrumental in guiding readers through the complex subject matter in a coherent and accessible manner.

Chapter 1, introduction, starts with a Haudenosaunee story about the earth’s creation, showing how econarrative holds significant power. Subsequently, essential narratology concepts, such as narrative structure, narrative text, metanarrative, story, and econarrative, are elucidated with strong arguments and examples. Econarratives are judged as being beneficial or not depending on how they align with the analyst’s ecosophy. An ecosophy provides the grounding to judge whether a narrative is beneficial, destructive, or ambivalent (p. 19). Stibbe summarises his ecosophy by using one word, “Living”, and further explains it from four value priorities and three assumptions (pp. 19–23).

Chapter 2 examines activation in creation narratives. It focuses on the characters depicted in creation narratives. The transitivity system in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) is primarily adopted in analysis to see how various forms of creators are depicted in creation myths. To make a strong argument, Stibbe draws on the creation stories from a wide range of cultures, including the Genesis in the Bible, the African Bushman tale A dream of dreaming, the Chinese Creation story Yin and yang and the Dwarf P’han Ku, the Australian Aboriginal story Dreaming the world into being, etc. In reading this chapter, readers will not only appreciate the vivid descriptions of these stories but also see his econarrative commentary on them. The high values are given to stories which disrupt the dominant anthropocentric narratives. Stibbe encourages readers to unveil the positive environmental messages of stories by examining their linguistic features. When we weave these positive ones into the storytelling of any kind, we will contribute to environmental communication.

Chapter 3 delves into the ecocultural identity in the seed sovereignty movement. In this chapter, Stibbe introduces the concept of ecocultural identity and how identities are performed by econarratives. Several interviews with Rowen White, the leader of the Sierra Seeds organization, are elucidated from the lenses of linguistics and rhetoric. Stibbe discusses how White’s words construct her identity, how Mohawk identity is constructed as interconnected with seeds, as well as how seeds and plants are presented. Through the analysis of Rowen White’s performance of ecocultural identity, the author aims to inspire people to protect and restore the ecosystem.

Chapter 4 shifts attention to explore whether haiku with natural themes can be regarded as econarrative. Haiku is a special case of narrative (p. 78), and this book primarily looks at English haiku. These haiku vividly depict images in the natural world, evoking the reader’s care and respect for nature through their imaginative engagement and conventions for this genre. His in-depth analysis covers haiku and consciousness, tense usage in haiku, placefulness, and the intrinsic value inherent in haiku. Haiku’s potential to inspire individuals to foster a positive relationship with the ecosystem is highlighted.

Chapter 5 focuses on “enchanting: wonder in nature writing”. It explores the experience of finding enchantment through connection with nature, as opposed to scientifically intellectualized ways of thinking. The concepts related to enchantment terminology used in this book: enchantment, transcendent enchantment, immanent enchantment, and disenchantment, are explained. Afterwards, the focus turns to explore the texts which can evoke immanent enchantment. For a clear explanation, Stibbe takes Nightwalk: A journey into the heart of nature as the main example to explore how language can be used to depict the natural world. In general, the analysis in this chapter revolves around identifying narratological and linguistic features in texts that can convey enchanted encounters with nature.

Chapter 6 looks into the ethics within leadership communication. The objective is to unveil how performances of ethical leadership navigate people’s rethinking of the ethical basis of the society that surrounds them, with a particular analysis of the role of narratological and linguistic features in this process. The author elucidates the concepts of ethical leaders and ethical leadership. Subsequently, he scrutinizes instances of ethical leadership performances exhibited by leaders across various fields. Ultimately, the author envisions that ethical leaders have the potential to challenge entrenched meta-narratives woven into society, making an ecologically beneficial vision a reality through effective econarrative.

Chapter 7 deals with the emotional narrative in climate change documentaries. This chapter describes how an emotional narrative is essential for an econarrative. Two different types of documentaries on climate change are analysed as explanatory examples: An inconvenient truth by Al Gore, and This changes everything by Naomi Klein. Stibbe utilizes three pairs of concepts: the paradigmatic mode and narrative mode in Bruner’s cognitive function, Halliday’s ideational and interpersonal metafunctions, as well as logos and pathos in Aristotle’s modes of persuasion. In this sense, his analytical framework effectively integrates cognitive psychology, SFL, and classical rhetoric. On this basis, he explains how discourses realize their persuasive function as well as influence the audience’s mindset during the emotive narration, subsequently evoking their emotional responses towards the issue of climate change.

Chapter 8 delves into the persuasive techniques in multimodal genres in food advertising. The author takes video advertisements as explanatory examples and classifies this genre into four types: the classic-type, identity-type, narrative-type, and counter-type (p. 170). They are elucidated from the perspectives of genres, narratives, rhetorical features, modes, and linguistic features. Some advertisements adopt powerful narratives, but they oppose the author’s ecosophy. Stibbe also takes counter-advertisement as instances, to discuss how they use narrative techniques to associate food with ethics, love, and identity and to persuade audiences not to purchase items that will cause ecological harm (pp. 178–192). Advertisers may use techniques to promote unnecessary, unhealthy, or environmentally harmful products. However, these techniques can be subverted and used to construct counter-advertisements that aim to reduce the consumption of damaging products (p. 192).

Chapter 9 discusses the metaphors in narratives and their relation to climate change. In this chapter, Stibbe takes Silent spring by Rachel Carson, The dark mountain manifesto, and various apocalyptic stories as explanatory examples, to explore how metaphors are delivered in those discourses as well as their mappings towards ecological issues. The analysis encompasses both textual and visual metaphors. Since metaphors in apocalyptic stories usually contain the envision of the world collapse, the author analyzes them to imply that we need to create new econarratives to face climate change and avoid coming to the end of the road.

Chapter 10 concludes the book. Stibbe expounds that econarratives exist in the text, in the minds of individuals, as well as across cultures as a whole. Synthesizing the theoretical dimensions that each chapter spotlights to, he analyzes texts related to the theme of wolves, such as Little red riding hood, Wildwood, and Bridget Irving’s picture book, Little red hat. He explains how narratives influence people’s minds towards the shaping of the image of wolves as well as their ecological values (pp. 222–231). Stibbe also emphasizes that we can ascertain whether a narrative is eco-beneficial or not based on a certain ecosophy, then find alternatives for those which may cause harm to ecology and promote eco-friendly narratives.

Overall, Econarrative: Ethics, ecology, and the search for new narratives to live by establishes a foundational theory for econarrative, incorporating narratology, human ecology, critical discourse analysis, as well as ecolinguistics. The research corpus covers a diverse range of textual sources, including creation myths, indigenous podcasts, ethical leadership speeches, haiku poetry, documentary films, new nature writing, advertisements and campaigns, and apocalyptic stories. This can fully verify the theoretical application of econarrative. Although this book involves a wide range of genres, novels are not included in the analytical corpus. They are well analyzed in the area of ecocriticism (p. 24). Besides, all of the techniques the author describes can be applied to analyzing novels, so this exactly points out a valuable gap that analysts can explore longer works of fiction from the lenses of econarrative based on certain ecosophy.

Since the content of this book unveils the linguistic features that convey activation, emotion, empathy, identity, enchantment, and compassion in econarratives, it is highly recommended for linguistic researchers and postgraduates engaged in ecological discourse studies. Meanwhile, when interpreting linguistic features of texts, Stibbe introduces a large number of literary works, including stories in different cultures and haiku, so it is also of significance for those who want to explore the ecological meaning of literature from a linguistic perspective. In addition, Stibbe illustrates how ecologically beneficial econarratives can play a role in promoting sustainability. Therefore, whether you are educators, ecology enthusiasts, geographers, advertising designers, policy makers, or students who are passionate about understanding how language contributes to building a sustainable ecosystem, this book is an enriching resource. Furthermore, this book is also well-suited for individuals seeking to enhance their ecological literacy. Stibbe uses accessible language because, in each chapter, after he provides readers the explanations of concepts, he goes straight to the illustrative examples. This avoids utilizing too many technical words. Therefore, it is an ideal choice for readers who seek scholarly but accessible books that effectively communicate ecological ideas.

Compared with Stibbe’s previous work, many aspects of this book can be seen as an extension. In Stibbe’s (2015, 2021 book, Ecolinguistics: Language, ecology and the stories we live by, he describes the stories in the minds of multiple individuals across a culture as “stories we live by”. Stibbe (2024) introduces the concept of “econarrative” in his new book. This concept refines and concretizes the broader idea of ecological “stories that we live by”. With reference to ecosophy, it consistently holds significance in his books. Ecosophy serves as a crucial determinant to evaluate whether the ideology of discourse or an econarrative is eco-beneficial or not. The explanations for ecosophy have also developed. In Stibbe’s (2021) book, the ecosophy of “Living”, is explained from seven statements: valuing living, well-being, now and the future, care, environmental limits, social justice, and deep adaptation. In this new book, he still explains ecosophy through seven aspects. However, a notable difference lies in the introduction of “value priority” and “assumption” to explicitly classify corresponding explanations. This corresponds to the original definition of ecosophy, which refers to a set of principles, such as values and assumptions, to achieve ecological harmony (Naess 1995). More notably, unlike Stibbe’s (2021) work, where the word “consumption” was only mentioned in two statements in his explanation of ecosophy: environmental limits and social justice, it now appears in four statements out of seven. In this sense, Stibbe (2024) strives to provide a clearer and more comprehensive insight into the relationship between our consumption behavior and the physical environment. In addition, Stibbe (2015, 2021 interprets the linguistic features of Japanese haiku and how this genre invokes readers’ attention to the natural world. In his latest publication in 2024, he shifts the focus to English haiku, highlighting its characteristics as a special kind of econarrative. In this sense, he also further expands on how haiku presents its significance ecologically, evoking people’s concern and respect for nature.

In the end, understanding econarratives in language holds the potential to contribute to environmentalism. Environmental problems like climate change stem from human activities, and they have caused substantial damages and irreparable losses to both ecosystems and human lives, so people’s urgent actions are needed to address these issues (United Nations 2023). Within the ecosystem, language functions as a crucial subsystem, wielding a notable impact on the ecosystem’s network (He and Ma 2020). Meanwhile, language plays a substantial role in shaping individuals’ ecological ideology and influencing their corresponding activities (Song and Perry 2023). Econarratives in discourses can inspire people to think about their actions, which can contribute to the construction of an ecologically harmonious future (Stibbe 2024). Therefore, we need a book like Econarrative: Ethics, ecology, and the search for new narratives to live by to help us understand the power of econarratives and search for ecologically beneficial narratives to live by.