CSS116. We are here too! A workshop on how language affects climate and on radical inclusion of the non-humans in the language of policy documents

Language not only reflects and co-creates social universes, but it can be (and is) performative regarding the planetary common good, e.g. through international treaties and agreements. At the same time, the studies on the language used by policy documents show that it is inadequate concerning its expected agency; the reasons for that include its anthropocentrism, capitalocentrism and technocentrism. However, it is possible to rephrase it to address the diagnosed problems in a radically inclusive way. This interactive workshop investigates the conditions for altering the language used by policy documents to a posthuman mode that is addressing the issue of more-than-human inequality by becoming inclusive towards non-human actors. During the workshop, the idea and examples will be presented. In the process of group work, hands-on practical interventions in chosen excerpts of policy documents will be made. Finally, we will exchange our feelings and experiences.

  • Contributions format: interactive
  • Keywords: language, climate, climate action, climate policy, posthumanism, radical inclusion 
  • Related track(s): 5. Policy assessment, critique, and alternative proposals / 10. Challenging dominant values, ideologies,
  • Organizers: Pałasz, Michał (Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Krakow, Poland); Pieniążek, Maria (Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Krakow, Poland); Wydra, Jakub (Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Krakow, Poland) 

Full description

The workshop is addressing the issues underpinning the current polycrisis which degrowth aims to address – the capitalist and anthropocentric structures of exploitation. The contribution to degrowth is practical: the participants will expand their sensitivity in recognizing the oppressive practices, from those based on human relations only to ones that touch non-human actors and are based on human mastery and anthropocentrism. The participants will diagnose the presence of exploitation in the language of policy documents and react.

This session is planned as an interactive 90 minutes long workshop with no minimum and maximum number of participants. Space will allow the participants to sit in the circle and then reorganize to smaller circles and back. The organizers will present the idea of more-than-human inclusion in the language of policy documents and reasons for it; then, shortly present some examples from their own work and respond to any questions or demands for clarifications. After that, the participants will work in groups on editing in posthuman manner the excerpts of policy texts proposed by the organizers. Finally, everyone will be able to share the results of their work and to discuss them in a forum.