Note: Jargon type words are in grey, the first time they appear.

Hopefully they will prove to be useful over time.

 

The Professional Practice

Scientists search for evidence based models that can help "explain" observed reality, often in the service of intervening to acheive desired outcomes.

Clinical practioners build on the models of other scientists in their fields to focus on understanding the best intervention strategies.

In this sense, practicing designers can be seen as the clinical practictioners of the life sciences.

 

Arguably the two ends of the scientific perspectives might be considered economics and physics. Based on the traditional division of disciplines that has developed since the Enlightment, economics and physics seem to have completely different methods, skills, literature and domains.  But when a speciality of econophsyics starts to emerge, it seems plausible  that we are moving to a new stage. With the spread of accessible computing power, the growth of digital information, and better visualizing technology, we may now be in a position to challenge the mind/body, physical/social duality that has framed the Eurocentric discourse since it began.  As we are get new technology to see complexity, we can build models that can more closely capture the complexity of natural life.

 

The contention is that it would be useful to reframe our academic institutions to align more closely with the emerging reality. The further contention is that all science has the long term aim of understanding life. While every scale and time frame needs different specialized skills and knowledge, it seems plausible that insights from each can be useful in all.

 

The suggestion is that the concept of "life sciences" can be a useful umbrella to re focus parts of mathematices, physics, chemisty, biology, demography, sociology, pyschology, economics, politics and history as well as parts of the other physical and social sciences. The further suggestion is that design practice can usefully takes its place aside clinical pyschology, clinical medical practice, social work as centers of a practice of intervention.

 

The scale and nature of the interventions would be to affect the communication ecology. The time frame would be determined by the nature of stress that is presented. The activity space of the intervention is determined by the space/time in which the stress presents.

 

The General Perspective

We start with the common sense observation that individual human activity can be seen as composed of a series of discrete decisions.  Complex behaviors may be as prosaic as getting out of bed, as life changing as falling in love, as necessary as making purchases, as instrumental as investing savings, or as potentially dysfunctional as breaking the law. Observable activity ("behavior") can be "explained" as the observable outcomes of a complex cascade of micro decisions.

 

Communication Ecology does not focus on the "intent" of decisions as the best way to understand activity. To the extent that intent is described in terms of ideas - the linked "words" the human head brain uses to organize experience - intent is a second order explanatory concept. The "intent" of the actor can only be deduced, not directly observed. Speech acts remain important data. But without context, they are hard to intrepret in the service of predicting what people are going to do.

 

As my mother said, "Don't listen to what people say, watch what they do".

 

The  thing that can be reliably observed are individuals moving through space/time and activity spaces. One plausible narrative of this observed behavior is that the individuals are making a series of micro-activity decisions about the next thing to do. Micro decisions might include clicking away from a web page or "love" at first sight or stopping to focus on a advertisement or punching someone in the mouth. To most quickly understand behavior in the interest of affecting it, the appropriate scale is the micro decisions. Like neurotransmitors in neuroscience, the more visible the proximate influences, the more effective the possible interventions.

 

Elements of micro decisions

Through the lens of Communication Ecology micro decisions involve allocating time, investing energy and focusing attention. Cascades of thousands of micro decisions become apparent in more complex behavior like spending money, attending school, going to work, getting married, moving to a new home.

 

At the micro scale, decisions are made following the path of least resistance. The easiest thing to do is to continue to do what has been done before. This requires the least input of energy and, given a relatively stable environment, creates the expectation of the most predictable results at low cost with low perceived risk.

 

But when the environment significantly changes and previous behavior leads to proximate disincentives, stress is introduced. There are many ways to resolve the inevitable stresses of an inherently unpredictable environment. The stress may trigger a fight or flight response. It might lead to new knowledge or new behavior. Stress can either be productive or dysfunctional. Stress introduced by changes in the environment cannot and probably should not be completely eliminated.

 

In this approach, individuals are seen as constantly involved in communication exchanges with other people, media and the physical environment. Each exchange can be seen as a market like interaction. The value given by the listener is, at minimum, attention. The value received by the listener is "interesting" information.

Predictive narratives about the outcomes of communication exchanges can be developed by using the cost benefit principles of economics. If the perceived value received is greater than the marginal perceived value given, a next exchange is allowed by the listener.

 

We part ways a bit from the economists in trying to take account of the behavior that is described as "altruistic". There is much evidence that humans respond in a deep way to "helping" each other. While the incentives for this kind of behavior are not yet well defined, the hypothesis is that it can be most clearly understood from a zoological perspective. Animals that congregate in groups seem to have neural systems that respond to signals that elicit "altruistic" behavior. When understood at the scale of the tribe, it is plausible that this ability has been selected by evolutionary processes.

 

Similar to the research approach of neurology in biology, there are symbols to describe common processes that can be applied to "explaining" specific acitivity. In the language of Communication Ecology the common process that can be used at various scales of a communication system is input - transformation - output, referrered to as I-T-O to save space.

 

 

In this language, communication ecologies can be seen as networks of activity centers of I-T-O functionaities.

Since so much of the input, transformation and output occurs in the form of human constructed symbols - words, sounds and images - it can be studied through the lens of communication and communication design.

 

The focus of investigation and intervention is the articulation of the I-T-O's of communication exchanges. The modifying conditions in a communication exchange are the time horizon, the externalities of the activity space, the received input. Received input is a non trivial issue as information in the activity space is mediated by an individuals activated perceptual framework.

 

From the activated POV of the actor within a local ecology, the I-T-O functions to favor activity that minimizes risk and maximizes wealth creation - given a time horizon, specific stress, specific interest of the actor and specific received input.

 

Like the economists, we assume that people make rational decisions to minimize risk and maximize wealth. Unlike many economists, we believe that money is only one indicator of wealth or risk. Since "value" is necessarily unique to an individual at a specific space/time, activity decisions only can "make sense" in the context of specific space/times. If behavior appears irrational to the observer, it is taken to indicate that the outside observer has an imperfect understanding of the actor's perspectives and space/time specific stress. Describing activity decisions as "irrational" is merely a way to short circuit the need for close empirical research.

 

Every individual has a repetoire of of potential perspectives - POV's - that determine what the individual can see within a given space/time. Different POVs are activated by different kinds of stress at different space/times in different activity spaces. A POV is plausible as an evolutionary necessity, as it enables filtering potentially continuous input. Without this filtering it would be impossible to create the perception of meaning, which is essential to organize and store information.

 

Understanding the interests of the actors and the stresses that are associated with a specific perspective in a unique space/time can help guide the creation of the most effective communicative intervention. The sequence of interactions that affect POV dimensions and POV activation within different space/times are a major focus of empirical research.

 

A Model

 

 

Personal focus

My primary interest is the potential of Communication Ecology to clarify the processes underlying community based wealth creation in the form of social capital. The particular communities in which I am most interested are activated at the scale of normal everyday life. Within that field, I am presently focused on the communication ecology of Social Enterprises.

 

The intent of Communication Ecology is to become a useful theory to guide the professional practice of Communication Design.

The unique professional domain of a communication design is the ability to create objects which have the  intent to communicate and thus, by changing individual behvior, change system outcomes. The hope is that a model including perspectives, space/time, stress and rational activity decisions can help articulate the process of communication and might be useful as guide to analyze best practice, in the service of discovering what will work best in different specific contexts.