Fairleigh Dickinson University Press Communicology: The New Science of Embodied Discourse (The Fairleigh Dickinson University Press Series in Communication Studies)

This book offers a new way of thinking about communication that moves beyond normative perspectives. Exhibiting postmodern theory, communicology is an idea whose time has come. Working within the European human science tradition and the philosophy of American pragmatism, the authors included in this first anthology of its kind applies a synthesis of semiotics and phenemology to the study of the cultural and social conditions of communicative praxis. Framed by the themes of human agency and efficacy, these essays focus on the realms of conscious experience in intrapersonal communicology (the self-domain), interpersonal communicology (self-other domain), social communicology (group-organization domain), and cultural communicology (group-to-group domain, including mass media and trans-cultural communication). It is the usual case in the social sciences that communication is ignored or treated as a means to more substantative ends. More-over, much work within discourse study proceeds on implicit, deeply held, culturally embedded ontological and epistemological assumptions about communication that are positivistic. Hence, uncritical and non-reflexive approaches to communication and discourse prevail. This book provides an alternative to readers curious about the fundamental nature of human communication rather than viewing this phenomenon as a mere vehicle for referents or thoughts. A designation first introduced in the United States in the 1950s by founders of the International Communication Association, the term communicology is now used to define parameters of a unique research endeavor. At its heart is the refusal of the dominant logos of discourse as the only legitimate expression of the humane. Broadly defined as the study of human discourse, this critical-interpretive approach interrogates the reversible, reciprocal, and reflexive nature of the "expressive and perceptive body," understood as the point of mediation between us and the cultural signs and codes of discourse in which we live. Communicology i Review Regarding the typical definition of communication as a means to an end based on uncritically-accepted assumptions, Eicher-Catt (communication arts and sciences, Pennsylvania State U.-York) and Catt, cofounders of the International Communicology Institute, introduce communicology as a holistic approach applying a synthesis of semiotics and phenomenology to embodied discourse mediated by the perception of cultural signs and codes. Eight essays situate the approach in intrapersonal, interpersonal, social, and cultural contexts. Foucault's efficacy model and Merleau-Ponty's agency model of communicology are mapped. Examples include weblogs as illustrations of personal agency and efficiency, and women's ascension to the Oval Office as a question of symbolic space, not just a matter of time. Distributed by Associated University Presses.--Book News, Inc. About the Author Deborah Eicher-Catt is assistant professor of communication arts and sciences at the Pennsylvania State University, York. Isaac E. Catt is author of over 100 academic papers and founding member and Fellow of the International Communicology Institute.