Genre Mash-Up: When Two Worldviews Collide, the Genre Conventions from Each Undergo a Syncretistic Re-emergence

• Main Authors: Taylor, Karen, Chapin, Terry, Hum, Richard
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Iowa State University Digital Repository 2013
• Subjects: Communication; Arctic; Fairbanks; Climate change; Inupiat; Alaska
• Online Access: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/sciencecommunication/2013/proceedings/25; https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1050&context=sciencecommunication

The current study proposes to trace the process by which genre features get preserved, modified, or discarded when a politically-sensitive topic draws on both scientific and indigenous knowledge. Initially a network analysis is included to demonstrate the extent to which literature exists that draws on either scientific or indigenous knowledge resources as relating to Arctic climate change; that macrostructural analysis demonstrates that while both exist, there are few linkages in citation between the literatures. The authors then look at the negotiation processes involved in trying to bring more indigenous elements into the scientific literature. This was done by studying the full sets of article submission, all reviewer comments, and revised articles. The focus is on an invited article for The International Panel on Climate Change, which had responded to feedback from previous iterations of their annual report by including a specific chapter dedicated to the perspectives of the tribes that live in the Arctic region, a region that is experiencing more rapid climate change than other parts of the globe. The authorship of that chapter was assigned to a group of researchers, primarily housed at University of Alaska– Fairbanks, that includes Alaskan Native researchers (Inupiat and Athabaskan) and an assortment of biologists, ecologists, marine chemists, etc. The chapter has gone through three iterations with reviewers, and additionally the correspondences between the chapter authors were considered. For comparison, an article in the social science disciplines was also considered, with strikingly similar reviewer comments. These compared cases illustrate the themes used to protect/enforce the genre conventions of the scientific article, and thus serve to perpetuate the separations visible in the network data.