1 Professional Communication: Changing Landscapes
The socio-political importance of conducting professional communication research in contemporary societies cannot be under-estimated. Over 20 years ago, Gunnarsson et al. (1997: 1) pointed out that efficient communication in the professions âis absolutely vital for society to function properlyâ. Since the time of this publication, in the highly digitised, globalised world, effective professional communication is arguably even more critical to the robustness of social, political and economic functions of societies worldwide. But how do professional communication researchers feed their research findings into professional contexts? At what stage in the research process should this happen? What is the relationship between the researcher and researched? What happens to the identity of the âresearcherâ in such a process? What topics and professions should be researched? How can professional communication researchers genuinely work with, for and on behalf of others, including marginalised and/or vulnerable groups? What roles do/should researchersâ own political beliefs play in influencing research questions, the direction of projects and how findings are interpreted and disseminated? What about the role of the âimpact agendaâ and other, similar agendas that have affected multiple universities in different parts of the world (Lawson and Sayers 2016; McIntyre and Price 2018)?
This collection aims to investigate these questions in a range of global contexts through three different yet interrelated approaches: âconsultancyâ, âadvocacyâ and âactivismâ. Professional communication work drawing upon one or more of these approaches is presented in each chapter to identify, analyse and assess the changing practices of professional communication research due to considerable social, cultural and political transitions taking place in contemporary societies. The volumeâs authors demonstrate how different practices of conducting professional communication research via consultancies and/or forms of advocacy and activism have emerged through changing research priorities, partly in response to the rapidly shifting landscape of higher education, including the increased marketisation of universities within neoliberal economies (De Costa 2016; Morrish and Saunston 2019).
âProfessional communicationâ is defined in this volume as an umbrella term to cover approaches within language, linguistics and communication studies where research in professional settings takes place. A broad definition of âprofessionalâ has been adopted, conceptualised as any individual who has a workplace role responsibility, including all interactions between lay person(s) and those who occupy professional role responsibilities. This expands upon earlier definitions, including the influential notion whereby a âprofessionalâ was defined as any individual engaged in paid work (Gunnarsson et al. 1997). The wider definition taken here enables studies of those engaged in non-paid work, including voluntary occupations with charities and NGOs to be included, as well as those who engage in work but who do not know with any degree of certainty that this will be financially rewarded, as in agriculture in developing countries (discussed in Chap. 4). In terms of defining âcommunicationâ, again, a broad definition is taken, inclusive of approaches from applied linguistics, interactional sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, critical discourse analysis (CDA), conversation analysis, ethnography, stylistics and pragmatics, enabling a range of perspectives and approaches to be covered.
The defining principle for professional communication research in this volume is that, whatever geographical location it is taking place in, the authors place investigation of a particular socio-cultural problem at its core, which is then empirically investigated. The exact focus of the socio-cultural problem may be decided at the beginning, or it may be emergent during empirical work; it may be jointly negotiated and collaboratively developed between the researcher(s) and researched and/or with remits and stipulations of funding bodies, or in discussion with those commissioning research consultancies, and/or with those granting access to research sites as gatekeepers. All of these processes can be fraught with complexities, which will be discussed at relevant points in the volume (see also Mullany 2008; Cook 2012). However, the foundational principle of socio-cultural problem-solving through empirical investigation sits at the core of all chapters; in my view, this foundational principle should be at the centre of all work that is carried out in the global field of professional communication research. There are some echoes of sociolinguistic and CDA traditions here, with Labovâs (1982) view that social problems have been core to his sociolinguistic work and studies influenced by his tradition. Fairclough and Wodak (1997: 271) list addressing âsocial problemsâ as a core principle of CDA research. However, as Roberts and Sarangi (2003) point out, although the topics of CDA research are social problems, traditionally, CDA researchers do not prioritise coming up with practically relevant feedback, interventions or recommendations to change future practices.
Professional communication research which includes a practical engagement element of feeding back to those being researched is in itself not new. Within applied linguistics, in language learning and second language acquisition in particular, a core focus has been on enhancing teaching and learning practices through empirical research, including advocacy and activism (see de Costa 2016 for an excellent overview of contemporary work in this area). In sociolinguistic research, there has been a longstanding set of principles for advocacy work. This includes the principle of âlinguistic gratuityâ (Wolfram 1993), that researchers should ârepayâ those they research and the advocacy principles of Labov (1982), based on his role as an expert witness in a case successfully challenging part of the US educational system for linguistic discrimination. Furthermore, Cameron et al.âs (1992) proclamation to empower those being researched by working âwithâ and âforâ research participants instead of âonâ is still influential. Sarangi and Roberts (1999) and Roberts and Sarangi (2003) trailblazed with their reflexive research consultancies in commissioned healthcare projects in the UK on linguistic discrimination, described as âaction-orientatedâ research; The work of Candlin (2003) demonstrated perspectives from those officially working âwithinâ professions as âinsidersâ, where they applied practical linguistic tools to workplace issues that they identified ethnographically, when carrying out their everyday job roles.
Whilst the historical development of professional communication research from a variety of linguistic traditions and approaches shows the trajectory of early research and its importance at the foundation of the discipline, the academic landscape has changed significantly in the last two decades and is quite unrecognisable to the one that existed in the 1980s and 1990s, when initial work was being undertaken. Academics have been increasingly held to account in terms of exactly how they are spending their research time, who they are researching and why; research with clear, demonstrable, measurable âimpactâ on populations is becoming more essential if research funding bids are to be successful. This transition can be seen in a growing number of university systems in different global locations (cf. McIntyre and Price 2018; McEnery 2018).
In order to ensure that cutting-edge communications data is analysed, which most accurately reflects the complex communicative processes in twenty-first century professional life, the focus will be across spoken, written and digital forms. The landscape of professional communication has changed dramatically in the last ten years, with the advent of social media and a range of other interactive digital communicative forms, including instant messaging and professional communication interactions through global media platforms. Public self-images of businesses, individuals and organisations are under constant scrutiny by the general public and the mass media. The digital professional landscape continues to change rapidly, with communicative norms almost constantly transitioning. Professionals and organisations need to adapt swiftly to new communicative skills with differing socio-cultural norms and conventions. Digital data will be considered at various points in the collection across a variety of domains.
Additionally, as part of ensuring that this collection broadens the field and is of long-term use and value to its readership, this volume incorporates chapter contributions from practitioners working on professional communication in a range of fields, including businesses, healthcare and law. This takes place alongside academic contributors working as research consultants, advocates and/or activists as part of their academic role responsibilities. Practitioner contributions are from established experts in their fields of practice (Ereaut, Mooneeram, Mann and Fish). They bring a different set of perspectives to the collection and, in my view, it is very beneficial to integrate the voices of practitioners alongside those of academics if we are truly committed to making research evidence count in real-life professional settings. It is integral to understand the approaches of those who apply research findings into consultancy and workplace training packages on a day-to-day basis. These practitioners are united by their ability to see the value of working with practical tools and techniques from language, linguistics and communication studies, either to enhance their consultancy training in professional workplace practices and/or to bring academic value to particular campaigns or cases. These authors offer innovative perspectives on how collaborations can be conducted to enhance dialogue and working relationships between academics, practitioners, professionals and members of the public.
This collection thus brings together a unique set of international authors who engage in a set of original, empirical investigations which place a series of important contemporary socio-cultural problems at the centre of their research. A range of linguistic approaches are taken and the chapters pose new and different challenges to the field, particularly in light of ever-changing, global landscapes in academia and organisational practice (cf. Price 2018; Darics forthcoming, 2021). The current collection highlights multiple ways in which professional communication research can be carried out successfully as forms of consultancy, advocacy and activism. These approaches draw upon differing professional relationships and role responsibilities for academics and practitioners with those being researched/consulted. The process of genuinely collaborating with the researched/consulted comes with its own complex theoretical and methodological challenges. This volume presents an important opportunity for these issues to be discussed and debated. I will now move on to define how the terms âconsultancyâ, âadvocacyâ and âactivismâ are applied here, before outlining the professional domains focused on across this collective work.
2 Consultancy, Advocacy, Activism
In this volume, âconsultancyâ is defined as professional communication research where academics and/or practitioners conduct a particular project with a specific area of focus set by an individual, group or organisation who has valued their expertise enough to request their input. Most often, this will involve practitioners, researchers or their institution being paid in some capacity for their time and expertise; however, on occasion, consultancies may be given as part of âin-kindâ contributions, or delivered free of charge (see also DemjĂ©n and Semino, this volume). There are a range of different topics upon which linguistics consultancies can be carried out but, as already outlined above, the unifying factor of this volume is that all contributors are committed to addressing a particular socio-cultural problem and are attempting to make a positive social change, as well as positively influencing the future development of profe...