Review of "Communicating Mobility and Technology: A Material Rhetoric for Persuasive Transportation," by Pflugfelder, E. H. (2017). New York: Routledge, 2017

Daniel L. Hocutt

doi:10.1145/3071088.3071096

Communication Design Quarterly Mar 2017 Open Access

Review of "Communicating Mobility and Technology: A Material Rhetoric for Persuasive Transportation," by Pflugfelder, E. H. (2017). New York: Routledge, 2017

Daniel L. Hocutt University of Richmond

Abstract

Humans are so enmeshed in mobility systems that they identify with themselves through those systems. InCommunicating Mobility and Technology: A Material Rhetoric for Persuasive Transportation,Ehren Pflugfelder (2017) uses the term "automobility" to describe both "the specific kinds of mobility afforded by independent, automobile-related movement technologies" and "the complex cultural, bodily, technological, and ecological ramifications of our dependence on separate mobility technologies" (p. 4). Given identities enmeshed in ecologies of systems involving human and nonhuman actors through which transportation emerges, automobility is described as a "wicked problem" to be solved, in part, by technical communicators and communication designers naming and revealing the persuasive power of transportation systems. Understanding this persuasive power benefits practitioners by revealing the shared agency of automobility among the car-driver assemblage, and academics, by offering a framework for recognizing transportation as persuasive and therefore rhetorical.

Journal: Communication Design Quarterly
Published: 2017-03-27
DOI: 10.1145/3071088.3071096
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Open Access: OA PDF Gold
Topics: rhetorical criticism technical communication body and rhetoric book reviews
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Review of "Communicating Mobility and Technology: A Material Rhetoric for Persuasive Transportation," by Pflugfelder, E. H. (2017). New York: Routledge, 2017

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