Ecolinguistics, thick and thin: Action in Kosovo, global implications

Inspired by working for life sustaining relations by linking the global and local, the paper focuses on a Kosovo initiative. There, influenced by ecolinguistics, a civic organization is working to improve the local river world. First, we sketch how the initiative began by making econarratives that were used to specify desiderata. Next, in counterpoint, we sketch the ontological focus of a large European project. Whereas local actors highlight what should be done, large-scale work opens up knowledge without asking how change can be achieved. Our claim is that, in making knowledge actionable we can bring scientific ontologies to econarrative-making. Civic organizing can link up practical expertise, econarratives and scientific ontologies. Locally grounded and globally organized ecolinguistics can thus channel the knowledge needed for action by using local languaging, places and organizations. In this sense, the field binds the “thin” knowing of academia to the inspiration of “thick” local econarratives. Within a frame of Organizational Cognition, “social organizing” comes to the fore in working to better specific place-worlds.