@article{intel:/content/journals/10.1386/ejpc.4.2.113_1, author = "Glenn, Cathy B.", title = "A middle way: Process philosophy and critical communication inquiry", journal= "Empedocles: European Journal for the Philosophy of Communication", year = "2012", volume = "4", number = "2", pages = "113-131", doi = "https://doi.org/10.1386/ejpc.4.2.113_1", url = "https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/ejpc.4.2.113_1", publisher = "Intellect", issn = "1757-1960", type = "Journal Article", keywords = "Alfred North Whitehead", keywords = "cultural critique", keywords = "process philosophy", keywords = "communication criticism", keywords = "metaphysics", abstract = "Abstract My contention in this article is that in order to construct critical communication knowledge useful for understanding change and affording a productive politics, critical scholars would benefit from an ongoing, serious discussion of the metaphysical assumptions that underlie our work. Conceiving change – understanding its process and how to create humane change – is the axis on which critical work turns. Process thought provides a relevant and useful philosophical context in which to address questions of change. I begin this article, then, with a brief argument to revisit and reconsider process thought in the context of communication scholarship. Next, I offer an overview of Alfred North Whitehead’s speculative and systematic approach, contrasting it with a traditional metaphysics approach. Following is an explication of process in contrast to substance and a discussion of some fundamental tenets that comprise a process theory of reality. A brief analysis of temporality animates the foregoing concepts and points to some implications, in the final section, for conceiving change in critical communication work from a process-oriented perspective.", }