Toward the Twenty-First Century

Growing out of a six-year process of reflection, deliberation and writing, and involving over 100 members of the discipline, the chapters comprising this book indentify and launch reflection about primary questions that must be engaged by research and pedagogy if the field of speech communication is to remain vital in academe and the social world. Four questions were identified as fundamental to future research and teaching which reflect the heritage of speech communication and involve the discipline in vigorous dialogue about consequential intellectual and cultural issues. They are: what do technological developments and changes in the mission and means of communication imply for future teaching and scholarship on speech communication?; what and whose purposes within and beyond the field do definitions of speech communication serve?; how does increasing interest in cultural diversity affect research and teaching in speech communication; and what relationships exist among communication, power and order, and how should these issues individually and in tandem be reflected in scholarship and teaching? A group of chapters is devoted to exploring each of these questions. In recognising what is shared by scholars and teachers in diverse areas, and in calling attention to the four issues that will become increasingly prominent in the cultural landscape, the chapters spotlight themes and foci germane to the field's health and identity in the years ahead.