Around the time this book is being written the world is faced with threats of terrorism, random shootings in various public places on a global scale, increased school violence especially in the United States, increased racial, ethnic, and religious tension worldwide as well as global forced displacement of people due to violence and human rights violations. Given this context, this project turns attention to the problematic of the "uprootedness of the modern man" in our age of technological advancement, globalization, and distraction. It introduces an innovative perspective to the study of communication ethics and the larger field of communication studies through an aesthetic ecology framework. The concept of aesthetic ecology refers to an environment that involves material, conceptual, and contemplative elements that are part of the ongoing dialogue between our sensuous and interpretive engagements in/with the world. Each chapter of this book explores an aspect of this aesthetic ecology in facilitating existential rootedness in connection to communication ethics.
OEzum UEcok-Sayrak is assistant professor at the Department of Communication & Rhetorical Studies at Duquesne University.
Introduction: Being Reminded of Roots Chapter One: The Poietic Sense of Meaning Chapter Two: The "Weight" of Meaning Chapter Three: Signlessness Chapter Four: Learning to Be (in Con/tact) Chapter Five: Attending to the Breath (of the Other) Chapter Six: Silence, Solitude, Reverence Closing Index About the Author
The careful situating of communication ethics in a landscape of minute shifts in one's embodied presence is not something this reader has encountered previously-and a feature that really makes this book stand out as a unique and original contribution. Finally, here is an accessibly written book that breaks the taboo on speaking discerningly about bodily experience, and that claims this ground as a field deserving of attention both in communication ethics, and in pedagogical practice. * Atlantic Journal of Communication * UEcok-Sayrak has successfully fulfilled her task by showing how an aesthetic ecology in everyday life is a result of attentiveness to the present, no matter how traumatic or precarious this experience might be. She convincingly demonstrates how these seemingly ephemeral elements of communication are existentially important, giving insightful illustrations of their application in real life, including descriptions of her own lived experiences. * European Journal Of Communication *
