FORUM: Organizing and Integrating Knowledge about Environmental Communication

Environmental communication has emerged as an expanding academic field in the last three decades. Over the last 20 years, the field has become institutionalized, culminating in the founding of the journal Environmental Communication, the International Environmental Communication Association (IECA), and a couple of sections and divisions in established academic associations. The issue of whether these institutionalization processes have been accompanied by a parallel formation of an integrated and organized body of knowledge in environmental communication was raised directly with leading scholars holding a diversity of views and experiences within the field in a special extended session during the annual meeting of the International Communication Association (ICA) in London in June 2013. In this special section we present their contributions and reflections as regards theories, knowledge, actors, and future challenges in the field.