Environmental identities: Rhetorics of environmental planning (Rachel Carson, Aldo Leopold, Ian McHarg, Kenneth Burke)

Through the exploration of three social identities that animate environmental planning, I describe forms of citizenship in the discourses of toxicity, stewardship, and environmental analysis. Individuals are constrained in communication and identity by the communicative forms that are available. Forms are durable, but innovation may occur. I consider the influence of three texts on environmental discourse and the constitution of environmental citizenship: Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac, and Ian McHarg's Design With Nature.; Literary theorist Kenneth Burke proposed that forms have consequences for action. Forms help to create expectations and attitudes towards the natural world, identities for our selves and motivations for our actions. Using Burke's dramatism and textual analyses, I show the sources and consequences of the forms of these three texts for the identities and actions of those involved in environmental planning. The social identities expressed through these texts help to constitute important identities of environmental citizenship, including popular movements and professional associations. The way the three texts are applied in discourse shows how the forms embodied in the texts are translated to action.; The concept of rationality that once dominated planning has been under attack. This rationality was to provide universally applicable norms for planning. Theorists have turned to communicative approaches to describe a more contingent planning. Some focus on the particularities of individual situations. Part of their purpose has been to undermine the still-prevalent concept of rationality as universal. Part of my purpose in describing the forms of environmental discourse is to show that it is both possible and necessary to generalize between communicative situations. In order to understand communication in particular situations we need to understand the broader contexts of communication.; Using dramatistic analysis, forms can be identified and their effect on motivation can be understood. The research will help planners to understand how environmental literature influences the situations of environmental planning. More broadly, this approach is valuable in showing the importance of form in generalizing between communicative situations.