Starting on factor analysis today, especially combined with the “big green words” and “factor analysis” readings that we have been doing recently made it clear that when we use big words we also have to ask: so what? Why should anyone care about one big word more than another? What gives any of the “big green word” authors the authority to create and use their own words as such?
In small group discussions today I talked a bit about how I found the Alex Steffen piece on “bright”, “light”, and “dark” green to be convincing, especially in the context that it is given. I rationalized it as being a way for the public individual to acknowledge that not all Environmental Studies and Sciences (ESS) people are of the same mind for environmental problems and solutions. I have run into a number of people who, upon knowing what I study, start to talk about all the things that they know about ESS in one large category. This can be frustrating because there are huge differences in these ideas! If the public used Steffen’s big green words as effectively as he did, there could potentially be less distancing between “normal” people and the environmental community.
However, as we touched on in class, these words are also indefensible in the scholarly community. If Steffen had written a big-ass paper for a journal using the green characteristics that he created as freely as he hopes the public would use them, Steffen would potentially get boo’d off the stage, so to speak. The types of big words used in the scholarly realm are backed up and broken down in a way that offers credibility.
This sort of brought us to why on earth we were sitting in a computer lab for an Environmental Theory class. What it came down to is that big words need evidence too. The idea being that using factor analysis would help us use correlations between survey questions to potentially back up the big words we use.
Learning SPSS last semester was sort of a struggle, although I got significantly better with practice. Either way, I feel like I have forgotten everything so it will still be a struggle this time!