Abstract
For readers interested in technical and professional communication, organizational communication, public policy, or environmental communication, especially those focused on how opposing narratives, ethos, and relational rhetoric shape collaborative efforts toward social change, Environmental Preservation and the Grey Cliffs Conflict: Negotiating Common Narratives, Values, and Ethos by Kristin D. Pickering makes a valuable contribution to the field. As a Professor of English at Tennessee Technological University and a resident of the Grey Cliffs community during the conflict, Pickering brings both professional expertise and personal proximity to the project. She positions herself in an “in-between space” as both an “insider” and an “outsider,” and she takes on the role of participant-observer in this qualitative, ethnographic case study. The monograph pursues her research questions on negotiation and argues that negotiation is an essential process for building effective relationships.
Chapter 1 introduces the central conflict that frames the book, a dispute between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and community members of the Grey Cliffs lake area. David Edwards, the USACE resource manager who oversees Grey Cliffs, compiles reports on crimes and disturbances over the years and warns that the project could face closure. For residents, that threat carries real stakes, because closure would not just limit access; it would disrupt a shared way of life tied to recreation, local identity, and ongoing community connection. When residents hear rumors that their “consolation prize” might close, they refuse to stay silent. To these community members, Grey Cliffs functions as a consolation prize, an accessible area where they can count on convenient recreation opportunities, which makes the potential loss feel both personal and unfair. Pickering highlights this moment as kairos, the point when competing perspectives collide and create an opportune moment for action.
Chapter 2 connects the conflict at Grey Cliffs to similar conflicts in technical and professional communication, organizational communication, public policy, and environmental science. Both the USACE resource manager and the community members use what Pickering calls “competing rhetorics,” and she shows how each side frames the situation, assigns responsibility, and argues for what should happen next. On one side of the Grey Cliffs conflict, Edwards represented the scientific, organizational perspective of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and he regulated the flow of information about the Code of Federal Regulations, Grey Cliffs, and statistical information from the county sheriff’s reports. On the opposing side, the community, while seemingly homogeneous in its unified response against Edwards, consisted of very different individuals with their own narratives, stories, goals, and ethos. This chapter provides a theoretical framework for narratives, stories, and ethos situated within environmental and social justice to analyze the data gathered on this conflict.
Chapter 3 applies these frameworks to analyze the community’s values, narratives, and stories, showing how community members create a group ethos that shapes their relationship with the Corps, with one another, and with the Grey Cliffs environment. Pickering argues that this shared ethos supports negotiation within the conflict.
Chapter 4 introduces Edwards’s effort to persuade the community that Grey Cliffs needed protection in alignment with the Corps’ mission and vision. Because the area was neither safe nor well-preserved, Edwards worked to establish a regulatory ethos. He relied on two main strategies, appeals to authority and appeals to experience, and the community challenged both. In doing so, community members undermined his credibility and weakened his attempt to persuade.
Chapter 5 illustrates the need for trust at the start of negotiation by analyzing how community participants and organizers, Norma and others, worked to construct ethos, values, and agency. However, Norma and the community members did not see eye to eye. She approached the issue like a “scientist,” favoring logic over emotion. Norma did not fully establish a rhetorical persona, which shows how an audience can deconstruct a speaker’s ethos when trust is lacking.
Chapter 6 examines the shift in Edwards’s rhetoric from regulation to relationship. Although he did not intentionally seek to alienate the community, Edwards recognized that change was necessary to rebuild trust and move forward. He came to understand that personal connections with individuals were essential to progress. Edwards worked to earn this trust through character development, using appeals to sincerity and affinity. As he began to compromise and show support for the community, they began to accept him, and new narratives emerged.
Chapter 7 focuses on the results of Edwards’s efforts and emphasizes that negotiation drives co-construction. The community first has to acknowledge the problem before community members can collaborate with the Corps to build a shared narrative. This new narrative centers on working toward a more positive future as participants co-construct stories and align values. The Grey Cliffs effort frames that positive future so effectively that it becomes a model for future action.
Finally, Chapter 8 examines the status of the Grey Cliffs negotiation three years later and reflects on cycles of agency and the ongoing work of negotiating changing values. Pickering also identifies the study’s limitations and suggests implications for future research.
Kristin D. Pickering’s Environmental Preservation and the Grey Cliffs Conflict has much to offer scholars of technical and professional communication, organizational communication, environmental science, and public policy. As Pickering argues in the conclusion, “Future success in managing this conflict will depend on continuing to understand and negotiate common values, as well as a common ethos” (p. 218). Although Pickering’s framework is compelling, the book sometimes assumes that shared values and ethos can emerge through negotiation without fully addressing cases in which power asymmetries or deep-rooted mistrust prevent co-construction from taking place. Throughout the book, Pickering provides key recommendations at the end of each chapter for readers across these fields, emphasizing both practical and theoretical applications from her findings. While scholars and professionals in communication, environmental science, and public policy would benefit most from the book, Pickering’s engaging and readable writing style makes it appealing to a broader audience as well.