Conversations about place: Dialogic ethics and land ethics in technical communication

This paper proposes a hybrid place-based ethic for technical communicators. In order to offer richer decisionmaking strategies that more fully consider modern concepts of the environment, and to address the need for humanistic technical communication, this paper offers a hybrid ethic based on Aldo Leopold's land ethic and Martin Buber's concept of the narrow ridge. In proposing this place-based ethic, we first describe Leopold's land ethic and Buber's narrow ridge. We then present brief analyses of case studies drawn from documents, and interviews conducted with practicing technical communicators to show applications for this approach.