Ethics and Technology (2007) 9:281–295 Springer 2008 DOI 10.1007/s10676-007-9148-0

When Nightingales Break the Law: Silence and the Construction of Reality

Sandra Braman Department of , University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 210 Johnston Hall, 2522 E. Hartford Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53211, USA E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. Strikingly, theorizing about digital technologies has led us to recognize many habitual subjects of research as figures against fields that are also worthy of study. Communication, for example, becomes visible only against the field of silence. Silence is critically important for the construction of reality – and the social construction of reality has a complement, the also necessary contemplative construction of reality. Silence is so sensitive and fragile that an inability to achieve it, or to get rid of it, or to correct the wrong kind of silence often provides early indicators of individual, group, communal, and society-wide stresses from information tech- nologies. Indeed, we might treat difficulties with silence as miners treated canaries in coal mines, as early warning signals. The story has already been told that nightingales in London now have to sing so loudly in order to be heard above the ambient noise that the birds are in danger of breaking the noise ordinance law. Surely something has gone awry if nightingales break the law when they sing. Finding ways to protect silence as an arena of personal and social choice is a particularly poignant, evocative, and instructive ethical and policy horizon at this frontier moment for the human species. This article introduces the theory of the contemplative construction of reality, explores what the study of silence tells us about reality construction processes, and outlines a research agenda.

Key words: communication, contemplation, contemplative construction of reality, law, policy, silence, social construction of reality, solitude

figures against fields that must themselves also be the Even though reality subjects of study. In part, this development owes may not exist, honest dues to the contributions of thinkers such as we have a right to it. Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault. In part, how- ever, this trend also reflects qualitative changes in the Introduction types and quantity of data we are gaining about the world, the ways in which we are able to see that data, The ostensible subject for those who study commu- and our capacities to manipulate data in multiple ways nication is noisy and convivial. Like all subjects of using theoretical, conceptual, and methodological study, however, expression is a figure that only tools from across disciplines. Examples of areas in appears against a field, and for communication that which our knowledge is expanding in this way include field is silence. In the digital environment, silence is the indeterminacy against which we must understand increasingly rare – in parks we are surrounded by the determinacy (Martine 1992), the tacit knowledge music and of others, in the classroom or against which we must understand codified knowledge performance hall or church phones burst forth like (Kahin 2004), the nonlinear relations against which roaring motorcycles, and even in the solitude of our linear relations appear (Ragin 2000), and the silence homes we are drenched in information overload. against which communication becomes known. Digitization has also, however, expanded our Studying silence is particularly valuable because it is knowledge into new territory. Theorizing about the so sensitive to stresses caused by information technol- effects and nature of digitization has widened our ogies that the loss of silence serves as an early indicator vision to include both figure and field; long-standing to possible sources of harm for individuals, families, subjects of intellectual study are now being seen as communities, and society as a whole. The literature on 282 SANDRA BRAMAN silence reveals its importance for reality construction literature on silence developed concurrently with the processes, which include both the social construction of efflorescence of mass personal computing (Tannen and reality and what I will call the contemplative construc- Saville-Troike 1985; Jaworski 1992). Today enough tion of reality. Information overload and other negative people have publicly expressed concern about silence effects of the use of digital technologies create ethical that offering quiet rooms has become a hotel selling problems when they impede our ability to construct point; silence-related matters are forefront in every- reality in a valid and sustainable way. one’s minds because the information-intensivity of It is worth saying something about three notions every element of the world in which we live is that will figure prominently: contemplation, contem- increasing. As Weiser and Brown (1995) put it, when plative practice, and the contemplative construction computers were used by only a few experts behind of reality. Contemplation can be defined as the ‘‘act closed doors, the need for calm in the digital world was of beholding, or looking at with attention and relevant only for a few – but now that networked thought’’ (Oxford English Dictionary); it is an act of computers are everywhere, this is an important issue reflecting deeply on something. Contemplative prac- for us all. Both communication and silence should be tices are those activities – developed primarily within taken into account when building, analyzing, making various religious traditions, and including but not policy for, and experiencing what Nardi and O’Day limited to silent meditation – by which individuals (1999) usefully named our information ecologies. invoke and exercise their ability to attend deeply, i.e. Pinchevski demarcates that which is communicable to contemplate. The contemplative construction of from that which is not at the divide between the reality, a notion meant to call to mind and to com- ordinary and the extraordinary, describing this border plement that of the social construction of reality, is as ‘‘the next frontier to be conquered’’ (2005, p. 165). that aspect of reality construction that takes place We face additional frontiers today: through silent contemplative practices by individuals. • There is the biological frontier of the loss of silence, This article begins by looking at silence as it appears in tension with the long auditory history of efforts at what many believe to be a frontier moment for the to bring ourselves into more sound (Sterne 2003). species as it further evolves. It goes on to look at the • There is the cultural frontier marked by the shift social and contemplative processes of reality con- from print to digital (Joyce 1995; struction, the role of silence vis-a-vis those processes, Theall 1995), a boundary which, as happened with and what an initial research agenda for techniques by the transition from oral to written communication which silence and the contemplative might be pro- (Leidlmair 2002), draws attention to changes in the tected might look like. This essay therefore explores nature of silence itself. what those who study communication have learned • There is the historical frontier (Niethammer 1992) about the place of silence in the contemplative and generated by the growing predominance of epige- social construction of reality at this critical moment in netic forces (causal influence across space at a what it means to be human. This is a vast undertaking single point in time) over genetic forces (causal – more than one author can hope to complete in an influences across time at a single point in space) initial study – but it is hoped that these remarks will (Braman 1994).1 help open up discussion of a research agenda. • And there is the ontological frontier as we struggle to achieve a sense of reality within a postmodern environment influentially described as hyperreal Silence as field: The digital dilemma (Baudrillard 1983). The suggestion that loss of silence can serve as a None of these frontiers, notably, is marked by a bright stress indicator is borne out in analysis of its role at line. They are, in Crapanzo’s (2004) terms, ‘fuzzy the variety of frontiers humans face as a species. horizons,’ horizons with auras that draw us to them. All of them, however, are approached, rebuffed, Silence and the frontiers of the human engaged, negotiated, redesigned, and/or crossed through the processes of reality construction. It is for Awareness of silence as integral to the communicative field has long been important to those who study 1 Epigenesis affects silence in two ways: Epigenetic information technologies. Indeed, Marshall McLuhan’s globalization processes cause what has been described as a (1964) seminal insights into ways in which technologies massive linguistic extinction unprecedented in human his- alter how we experience being human were initially tory (Heller-Roazen 2005). And we have become acutely inspired by Hans Selye’s (1956) work on the impact of aware of the silences of place as well as those that mark stress, including noise, on the body. The interdisciplinary pauses or lacunae in time. WHEN NIGHTINGALES BREAK THE LAW 283 this reason that we can consider the legal problem of include contemplative practices within their purview. silence, which will be discussed below, the canary in the DeVito (2002) links -making through silence coal mine for many of the ethical and policy issues to other forms of , and presented by the use of digital technologies. Ishii (2004) finds silence so important to productivity, empowerment, and communicative expressiveness Conceptualizing silence that he believes a Buddhist epistemology would be useful in studying intrapersonal communication. Though it is common to think of silence as an This is a wildly disparate literature driven by very absence, there is a long history of thinking about different types of questions. In part this reflects the silence as a presence, often the product of intention fact that the field of communication itself is, today, a and agency. The earliest textual use presented by the mongrel discipline.3 In part the extraordinary variety Oxford English Dictionary (1989) defines the term in of approaches to thinking about silence and con- 1225 as meaning ‘‘the act of abstaining or forebearing templation may be explained by the location of these from or utterance (sometimes with reference topics at the margins of research to a particular matter).’’ In 1603 Shakespeare was the agendas rather than at the center. And in part it may first to refer in print to one person silencing another. be a consequence of the lack of theorizing regarding Across its different usages, silence is best understood the relationships between silence and communication; as generative. As indicative disruption, it stimulates often communication researchers use concepts – the production of knowledge. As structure, it makes ‘mindfulness’ is an example – in ways that diverge meaning. And as reflection, it enables contemplation, significantly from how the same terms are used by the ‘‘act of beholding, or looking at with attention those engaged in contemplative practice. and thought’’ (Oxford English Dictionary). For others, however, it is precisely this range that The first hint of the role of silence in the contem- gives the concept its utility. The diversity of approaches plative construction of reality came from cognitive to thinking about silence provides evidence of its psychologist George Miller, who drew attention to function as the communicative field, and of a particular the role of silence in message processing and memory richness in this nascent literature. Certainly apprecia- formation in 1957. In the 1970s, communication tion for communication as an ecology, as well as a set of researchers began to explore silence from a contem- processes and events, inspired those who first provided plative perspective that incorporated Buddhist con- comprehensive overviews of social science research on cepts (Bruneau 1973; Johannesen 1974; Khan 1974). silence. For Jaworski (1992), silence is a metaphor for For many, silence is approached through the lens of communication that has analytical utility because it noise, whether that is noise as message disruption appears in such a wide range of communicative phe- (Shannon and Weaver 1948), noise as instability or nomena, each requiring its own operational definition inauthenticity of texts (Hainge 2005), or noise as and interpretation. Saville-Troike, whose synthetic stressor (Selye 1956).2 Carey’s (1989) emphasis on a and strongly conceptual overview of the literature on ritual rather than transmission model of communi- silence provides the most comprehensive analysis of cation and Peters’ (1999) rescue of approaches to the diverse dimensions of silence available, goes fur- communication across diverse spiritual and intellec- ther, seeing both silence and sound as a part of com- tual traditions going back to the ancient Greeks municative behavior: suggest ways of thinking about communication that [A]n adequate description and interpretation of the process of communication requires that we under- 2 We approach this question in a postmodern period, but stand the structure, meaning, and functions of silence these issues are not new. Indeed, as Peter Paik (2006) as well as of sound. A total theory of communication pointed out, one of Kant’s footnotes in Critique of Judg- ment referred to how hard it was to achieve the focus required for when surrounded by the noise of rau- 3 In the first decades of the 20th century, communication cous prayer groups outside the window of his living quar- processes were at the center of the study of society by ters. The word ‘noise’ comes from the same Latin root sociologists. By mid-century, however, the absorption of meaning an unpleasant disturbance lacking musical quality those who study communication in technology (Peters (Smith 2005) – that gives rise to the word ‘nause´e’ that 1993) contributed to the peripheralization of what had Jean-Paul Sartre (1949) used as the title of his famous novel become a distinct discipline. In its current formation, social about alienation from the world after the Second World theories that inform the study of communication are largely War. The spiritualist claim to hear voices of the dead in drawn from other social sciences, while the results of tape recordings of silence (Enns 2005) may be the most communication research and theories developed by those extreme and least scientifically supported rumination who study communication are much less often taken up regarding the information that may be provided by silence. across the disciplinary border. 284 SANDRA BRAMAN

should further be concerned with the ways these broad outlines of the social construction of reality and two modes of behavior pattern in relation to the the contemplative construction of reality offered here is culture and social organization of a speech com- followed by a look at what has been learned from munity on the one hand and in relation to the empirical research on silence. This work contributes to personal motions and attributions of its members our understanding of the four areas in which the two on the other (1985, p. 4). types of reality construction processes can be com- pared and contrasted: Because Saville-Troike’s model includes both ‘code’ and ‘channel,’ and because it is such a comprehensive (1) origination in the individual, synthesis, those who are particularly interested in (2) expression as essential, silence in the digital environment will find this work, (3) an orientation towards the fact, and and extrapolations of it, particularly useful. (4) the importance of linking the individual and social levels of analysis. Some of these features are as important to the con- The processes of reality construction templative construction of reality as they are to the social construction of reality, and in the same ways. Defining, perceiving, approaching, or engaging with Along other dimensions, however, there are signifi- any of these species frontiers involves reality con- cant differences between the social and the contem- struction processes. The social sciences have been plative constructions of reality. suffused with reference to the idea of the social con- struction of reality for decades. Clearly the processes The social construction of reality by which reality is socially constructed remain impor- tant, but they are not the only means by which reality is One of the most influential ideas of the modern per- constructed. Studying silence as the field against which iod, first expressed by John Locke (1690/1970), was communications is the figure has brought the processes that our sense of the ‘real’ – of a world that exists of the contemplative construction of reality into view. independent of human perception – is shaped From a theoretically pluralist perspective, both pro- through the process of communication among indi- cesses can be underway simultaneously (but need not viduals discussing their experiences with others. Early be) in any given communication event, discourse, or 20th century social psychologists such as Cooley transaction.4 The comparative exploration of the (1909) and Mead (1934) added flesh to how this works from the individual side, while Dewey (1916) 4 Social scientists have appreciated at least since the 1980s and others studied the role of communication media that multiple theories can be simultaneously applicable, and in the sustenance of communities within large urban, two or more types of causation may be underway during any industrialized environments. By the middle of the given social event, relationship, or process. Methodologically, 20th century the approach became known as the this insight requires the development of techniques for mul- social construction of reality (Berger and Luckmann ticausal analyses, and on a more abstract level the position is 1966) – the theory that communication is central to referred to as theoretical pluralism. Each event, relationship, the ability of members of a given society in order to or process which we encounter ethically or legally is, however, develop a shared understanding of the world in which always and inevitably unique in the particularities with which multiple causal forces come together in a specific time and they live. place. Thus ethical and policy principles must remain abstract, The theoretical and research focus of most of those so that they can be useful across circumstances. ‘‘Best prac- who have relied upon the social construction of tices’’ and, in the U.S., statutory and regulatory law, apply to reality has been on the shared sense of the social classes of specific circumstances that are common and impor- world that results, including the material environ- tant enough to receive category-specific treatment. Beyond ment as mediated technologically, culturally, physi- that, ‘in the event,’ it is judgment, and discretion. ologically, and cognitively. Because the social There are ethical and policy consequences of not taking a construction of reality involves communication about theoretically pluralist position as well, and that is the argument individual sensory experience, social interactions here. Focusing on the social construction of reality alone, within identifiable groups are central, while infra- and without the complementary contemplative processes, can have supra-human contexts and the individual – what destructive social and environmental consequences that arise because the operational sense of reality in decision-making and happens within the individual, and within the broader implementation is skewed. The contemplative element, how- natural environment that includes but goes beyond ever, is also critically important and provides ways of knowing the human – are at the margins. As a theoretical not available through the alternative approach to reality con- approach, the social construction of reality has been struction. relatively easy to incorporate into work using other WHEN NIGHTINGALES BREAK THE LAW 285 contemporary social theories, which may be one is not that the individual is removed from society, reason it provided such a useful frame also for those but that the individual is reconnected with the larger struggling to identify an empirical grounding in a universe within which we all reside. Communication hyperreal world by the close of the 20th century. In is the means by which reality construction takes the 21st century, there is an additional challenge for place, and silence serves as architecture, enabler, and those who seek to claim confirmation of their own stimulant. Because the contemplative construction sense of reality in the political claim that being of reality involves focusing within and beyond the ‘reality-based’ is irrelevant (Suskind 2004). human, on the other hand, social interactions fall For obvious reasons, the notion of the social away. While both social groups and communication construction of reality has been heavily used by those can play roles in contemplative practice, here they who study the (see, e.g., Delli-Carpini are at the margins, in favor of solitude and silence. and Williams 1994; Lipschultz and Hilt 1999) as well Thus there are some similarities between social and as for those who study family communication (see, contemplative reality construction processes, but e.g., Yerby 1995), interpersonal communication also important differences. (Crown and Feldstein 1985; Phillips 1985), and organizational communication (see, e.g., Mumby Silence and reality construction 1997). Some claim that the theory has evolved in order to incorporate all of the features of the digital Four dimensions of a reality construction process environment. Ziegler (2007), for example, argues that were identified above: (1) origination in the individ- we are so information-saturated today that we should ual, (2) expression as essential, (3) an orientation distinguish between reality as socially constructed in towards the fact, and (4) the importance of linking the home and within traditional types of friendships the individual and social levels of analysis. Some of and collegial relationships, on the one hand, and as these features are as important to the contemplative socially constructed via the media, on the other. Zhao construction of reality as they are to the social con- (2006) points out that the theory needs to be adapted struction of reality, and in the same ways. Along for the digital environment because the zones through other dimensions, however, there are significant dif- which reality construction processes take place have ferences between the social and the contemplative qualitatively changed, with new zones of contact that processes of reality construction. she terms ‘consociated contemporaries.’ The literature sampled here is intended to be sug- gestive (not comprehensive) of the range of theoreti- The contemplative construction of reality cal and methodological approaches used in work on the nature and effects of silence. Aspects of this lit- Inevitably, there are many versions of the social erature speak to the importance of silence in the construction of reality, and many schools with which social construction of reality; and it is within this one could align oneself. Still, there is a shared, literature also that we find the first suggestions of and broad-brush version of the theory with which all support for what is being labeled here the theory of generally agree. So, too, as we begin our study of the the contemplative construction of reality, even contemplative construction of reality, we begin with though that language was not in use when earlier a broad-brush outline of a theory that presumably authors were writing. will ultimately receive much ramification and will probably provoke disagreements among those who Origination in the individual nonetheless agree on the general point. By the contemplative construction of reality, The individual is important to both the social and the therefore, I mean very broadly that which takes contemplative construction of reality, but in quite place through silent contemplative practices by different ways. For social processes, the development individuals, irrespective of the tradition or activities and/or recognition and maintenance of individual or context within which that contemplation takes identity is important because only once the individual place. Where the social construction of reality has achieved an identity separate from that of the focuses on society not only as the level of analysis community can communications among individuals but also as the referent for the ‘real,’ the contem- in the group then jointly construct reality. For con- plative construction of reality focuses on the indi- templative processes, focusing on the individual offers vidual’s sense of his or her body in a natural a different path: into, on the one hand, the intricate environment; it begins with the breath of one indi- and intimate mechanisms of the biological organism, vidual, alone, and can lead outwards beyond the such as the breath, and outward, on the other hand, social to include, for many, a spiritual dimension. It to the infinite expanses of interactions between 286 SANDRA BRAMAN specific organisms and the larger universe beyond the States someone who is persistently silent in social human species. For both social and contemplative settings may be seen as asocial, in Finland ‘positive reality construction processes, silence bounds indi- silence’ is a personal characteristic that is highly vidual consciousness and provides a lens through valued (Nwoye 1985; Carbaugh et al. 2006). which one can attend to experience as the source of knowledge. Expression as essential The role of silence in the contemplative construc- tion of reality begins with the very choice to be silent In the social construction of reality, the emphasis is and contemplative – even without solitude – for this on communication as the process by which reality is marks the point at which individuals separate them- constructed; each person communicates the facts of selves from the social group (Scott 1972). Evidence his or her experience to others and everyone discusses from a number of disciplines suggests that periods of each others’ experience together. Silence can be con- silence and contemplation appear to be necessary sidered a form of speech, and it is also important as a for the formation and sustenance of the individual: structural feature helpful for sense-making. Linguistic historian George Steiner (1967) argues that In the contemplative construction of reality, silently was central to the emergence of the however, it is silence, not communication that is the individual sense of self as it developed during process by which reality is constructed. Silence here is modernity. Research by cognitive psychologists defined positively, as a deliberate lack of expression. shows that those with Alzheimer’s, for whom loss of Both structuralist theory (Stanley 1990) and complex memory has such an impact on the sense of the self, adaptive systems theory (Saville-Troike 1985; remember stories significantly better if they read them Luhmann and Behnke 1994) offer insights into the silently than if they are told the same stories orally roles of silence within narrative and discourse struc- (Mahendra et al. 2005). Conversely, a pathological tures. Bokser (2006) distinguishes among complete form of silence known as ‘selective mutism’ appears of silence,5 and translators are aware of the in individuals whose concern about identity creates same narrative structures when they work across such anxiety that they cannot speak (McInnes and languages and cultures (Catania 2006). ‘Professional’ Manassis 2005). Psychoanalysts use silence in the genres often require mastery of the use of silence course of the ‘talking cure’ to stimulate the achieve- appropriately and effectively in oral presentations, as ment of psychological integration (Arlow 1961; the best academics do when they present their Nacht 1964). research (Rendle-Short 2005), news broadcasters do Social science research has offered some insights when they want viewers to recognize and recall into how these functions of silence work, but the important stories just preceding the silence (Lang picture is not complete. It has been found, for et al. 2003), and those in advertising and public example, that non-Jesuit faculty members at a Jesuit relations do to focus attention or generate certain institution of higher education use silence as a way of moods (Olsen 1994). articulating individual identity (Kirby et al. 2006). Experience is showing that deliberately incorpo- Concurrence regarding expectations of silence is an rating silence into the classroom also has its uses. important marker of the achievement of mutual Those who teach the deaf have found Benedictine understanding between conversational partners; teachings regarding the structural uses of silence individuals in dyadic communication tend to become within groups useful pedagogically (Herrmann 2006). more like each other over time in uses of silence, Patten (1997) found his students learned a wide range duration, and how it is broken (Capella and Planalp of things from a class on silence within a communi- 1981). It is not surprising, then, that silence plays a cation department. The Center for Contemplative key role, in conjunction with turn-taking, in manag- Mind in Society is currently funding the development ing remote (Szymanski et al. 2006). of courses that incorporate contemplation as a Among strangers, minimal conversational response is practice, and Wood (2004) is able to identify a likely to precede silences, and question and answer number of influences from Buddhist and other series follow (McLaughlin and Cody 1982). The contemplative approaches on pedagogical thinking ability to manipulate silence in such ways is so today. important a skill that it is considered a marker of language fluency (Macias 2006). There are notable differences across cultures, 5 Cassin (2005) provides an example of this approach in however, regarding the extent to which silence is his analysis of the conflict between ancient and considered to be psychologically healthy (Bruneau Rome as a discursive and linguistic tension between and Ishii 1988). For example, while in the United and silence. WHEN NIGHTINGALES BREAK THE LAW 287

Silence is believed to be effective in this structural contemplative construction of reality, facticity is also function for several different reasons. There are important, from two perspectives. First, there is physiological and cognitive processes that response to research-based evidence that periods of silent con- silence in the course of trying to recognize and templation – in addition to those of expression – are remember important information (Lang et al. 2003). necessary for the production of scientific knowledge. Silence can serve as a semiotic sign marking a shift in Second, the contemplative processes enabled by the subject upon which one is concentrating (Vanio- silence attend to matters beyond the grasp of the fact; maki 2004) or in the goal towards which semiotic unfortunately there has been, to my knowledge, no activity is aimed (Bruneau 1985). Silence can be used social scientific research into how this works or what as a deliberate rhetorical gesture, as in broadcast it yields. reportage on traumatic stories of the events of 9/11 Research has shown that periods of silent con- that deliberately includes moments of silence to per- templation are necessary for knowledge production, a mit viewers to grieve (Jaworski et al. 2005). And they subset of reality construction. Historians of the can be revelatory for those analyzing mass media printing press (e.g., Eisenstein 1979) recognize it was content for power relations (Baudrillard 1993). not only technological innovation but also cultural Going beyond a single rhetorical moment, choosing acceptance of the practice of silent reading and con- to remain silent within expressive contexts can be a centration that contributed to the leap in knowledge highly political form of speech. Those engaged in production following the reinvention of the printing political resistance find silence a powerful tool press and movable type in Western Europe. Sociol- (Jaworski 1992; Kyriakides 2005). In regions as dif- ogists of knowledge recognize that reflection is key to ferent as Latin America (Mattelart and Cesta 1985) knowledge development because only through and the Balkans (Splichal 2006), silence on the part of reflective silence can one distinguish ‘chunks’ of populations is read as political resistance. As John knowledge relative to a background of information Durham Peters puts it, trivializing or ignoring silence and distinguish peripheral knowledge from that upon can only be done if one misses ‘‘one of the most obvious which one is focusing (Leidlmair 2002; Scho¨n 1983). facts of ethical experience: the majesty in many cases of Those who study organizational communication now nonresponsiveness’’ (1999, p. 57). For Baudrillard, the recognize that more knowledge is not always better silences of dissent mark the furthest extremes of knowledge, for often it is impossible to absorb, reflect experience (Kroker 1992). upon, and actually use that knowledge with which Conversely, refusing silence when it is politically one has been presented without periods of reflection imposed is also a powerful form of political speech. (see, e.g., Simon 2000). Both popularly and theoretically, making ‘noise’ – A very important question raised by this work but breaking the silence – is understood to be a funda- not yet addressed by researchers involves the juxta- mental form of critique (Smith 2005). There is a position of our inability to achieve silence under massive literature of work in communication and contemporary conditions with the now-common cultural studies specifically devoted to identifying sense of information overload. It may be that our silences by or about particular populations or issues very lack of silence is key to the feeling that one as evidence of power relations. Individuals speak as cannot make meaning out of the expressions and witnesses when silence on politically important mat- information to which one is exposed, for without ters would otherwise occur. In the words of Holo- silence it may be difficult or impossible to shape or caust survivor and novelist Elie Wiesel, ‘‘If someone identify the structure that yields meaning, or to else could have written my stories, I would not have consolidate knowledge out of information and written them down. I have written them in order to speech. testify. And this is the origin of the loneliness that can When silences appear as disruptions of communi- be glimpsed in each of my sentences, in each of my cation that indicate failures, they stimulate knowl- silences’’ (quoted in Felman and Laub 1992, p. 3). edge production by identifying processes, variables, or events that need further study. Indeed, Chang Orientation towards the fact (1993) notes, communication is much more likely to fail than to succeed. The most well developed stream Lockean fact has served as the foundation of a of research in this area involves the study of the number of other key ideas – including the notion that communicative problems indicated by inappropriate the truth is determined by success in the marketplace or awkward silences in the interpersonal context of ideas and the role of peer review in the scientific (Roberts et al. 2006); in order to go on, speakers method – that accompany, result from, or are must engage in ‘repair’ (see, e.g., Dimitracopoulou required by the social construction of reality. For the 2006). There is a need for more work in this area that 288 SANDRA BRAMAN is attentive to substantive, professional, cultural, This literature now includes research that links the intercultural, and other contextual factor differences – spiral of silence with the knowledge bases underlying and that doesn’t treat silence necessarily as something public opinion (Shamir and Shamir 2000), examines needing repair. its implications for political control (Salmon and Glynn 1996), and unpacks its methodological impli- The centrality of individual–society relations cations for the study of popular expressions of opin- ion (Glynn and McLeod 1984). The law contributes to While the social construction of reality takes place in a spiral of silence when ‘chilling effects’ are estab- the interplay between individuals and society, the lished, conditions under which particular types of contemplative construction of reality takes place in speech are not explicitly illegal but generate such dis- the interplay between the individual and the self, on comfort that such speech is successfully discouraged. one hand, and the individual and the universe, on the other. Silence has a dual role, important both to the social relations that give rise to the social construc- Protecting silence and the contemplative: a research tion of reality, and to the contemplative practices that agenda facilitate relations with the self and the larger uni- verse including and beyond the human. Insights into Many techniques for protecting or enabling the social the importance of the role of silence in linking the construction of reality have been identified, including individual with society in pursuit of social goals have the professionalization of scientific and journalistic been particularly well translated into the law, a very practice, the use of technologies as a means of sepa- concrete means of socially constructing reality. rating that which is being communicated from the The interplay and complementarities between the one who is communicating (Michaels 1994), travel social construction of reality and the contemplative and other means of deepening one’s exposure to the construction of reality are demonstrated in work on material and social world (Calhoun 1991), refinement the processes by which tacit knowledge is built and of the narrative genres used to communicate facts transformed into codified knowledge. Tacit knowl- (Glasser 1991), the formation of epistemic commu- edge develops through the reflection, daily practice, nities, and the development of practices that make it and experience of individuals. It is described as tacit possible to read silences themselves as expressions of because it is not communicable other than through fact (Willnat 1991). All of these are worth investi- modeling. Individuals may often not even be self- gating for their potential vis-a` -vis the contemplative aware that they possess certain types of information construction of reality, though not all have yet been as ‘knowledge’ that is even worth sharing. Tacit the subject of research from this perspective. knowledge becomes codified when it is abstracted Limits to the social construction of reality also from experience and translated into terms accessible introduce opportunities for the contemplative con- to others. (Much of what is taught as the ‘scientific struction of reality. There are circumstances in which method’ involves what standards must be met in discourse (Baudrillard 1993) or technological media- order for your research results to be treated as if they tion of perceptions and facts (Dagognet 1992) may contribute to codified knowledge.) Tacit knowledge actually serve as barriers to reality, and in these can be built and used in silence, but communication is instances silence offers an alternative. Such limits – of part of the very definition of codification (see, e.g., perception and comprehension (see, e.g., Ranson Howells 1996; Cowan et al. 2000). et al. 1980; Beck 1992), rationality (Hayward and It is also possible to understand communication as Preston 1999), stability (De Landa 1991; Lefebvre a means of achieving silence. One study has shown, 1991), or organizational filters (March and Simon for example, that within a monastery working on 1963; Wittrock 1991) – identify foundational ideas relationships in conversation made subsequent about how to most successfully achieve the contem- retreats into silence more effective and meaningful plative construction of reality. Some techniques spe- (Jaksa and Stech 1978). Crawford (1996) suggests cific to the protection or stimulation of silence in that incorporating knowledge of Taoism into one’s ways that are valuable for the contemplative con- practices can help transform any conversation into a struction of reality have also come into use, but in contemplative moment. other areas there are still only suggestions of a Individual responses to the social forces repre- research and/or policy agenda. sented by public opinion can have their own powerful Social, technological, and legal approaches to silencing effect, as has been documented in a rich supporting the contemplative construction of reality stream of research on the ‘spiral of silence’ theory can be conceptually distinguished for analytical and first developed by Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann (1984). research purposes. What we learn about all three WHEN NIGHTINGALES BREAK THE LAW 289 types of approaches, however, must be viewed as an • What happens in social contexts in which there is integrated whole in order to identify new practices, no space for the contemplative construction of technologies, or laws that might be valuable. It isn’t reality? possible to develop technologies that can alert users to new information without disturbing others in their Technology environment, for example, until we know more about what it is that alerts people to environmental Work is already underway to develop technologies information. that protect silence, such as attempts to design sys- tems that maximize the sense of situatedness and Social practice and norms embeddedness (Fischer and Giaccardi 2004) and generate a sense of being ‘located’ in one’s environ- While there is support for the notion that silence in ment (van der Hoog et al. 2004). Underlying princi- the course of interpersonal and group communica- ples guiding such work include attending to the tion is valuable for knowledge consolidation, silence contingent and evolutionary character of technolog- in this context can also serve other purposes, whether ical choices (Bohlin 2004), respecting the material as an exercise of direct power (Bohnet and Frey 1999) nature of the informational world (Bowker 1994), or a management tool to shape behavior (Heaton and emphasizing the design of entire environments 1998). Since expectations are key to interpreting and rather than specific human-computer interactions. using silence in interpersonal and group settings, it is Dey et al. (2001) call technologies that serve these not surprising that research on cross-cultural com- goals ‘invisible.’ They distinguish among three types of munication has highlighted differences in the uses of invisibility – true invisibility, in which technologies and silence that range from discomfort when there is interfaces aren’t even noticed; transparency, in which silence on the part of the other, at one extreme, to a the use of technologies is so natural that it seems simply sense that one is not permitted to be silent oneself, at an extension of one’s own body; and subordination, in the other (Spencer-Oatey and Xing 2005). There has which functional aspects of technologies are domi- been much less work on the impact of silence on nated by other features, such as aesthetic. Weiser and individual behaviors, cognitive information process- Brown (1995) use the phrase ‘calm technology’ to refer ing, or idea formation – matters which should be to technologies that offer foci to which we may inten- considered for social policy and decision-making tionally turn for purposes of reflection or as an purposes because some forms of protection of and opportunity to concentrate and rest. ‘Slow technolo- support for silence and contemplative practice on the gies’ (Hallna¨s and Redstro¨m 2000; Hallna¨s et al. 2001) part of the individual are developed at the social level. are intended to promote concentration and reflection, Research questions worth addressing in this area whether through ‘informative art’ (Redstro¨m et al. include: 2000), or technologies that are appropriately subtle within public contexts (Hansson et al. 2001). Con- • How do silence and contemplative practices affect sumers now have access to technologies that make it the three separate processes of knowledge recog- possible to turn off televisions and other technologies nition, retention, and consolidation? within a certain radius, and similar technologies are • What are the circumstances under which silence in being used to create quiet zones in churches and the- organizational and interpersonal settings is most aters. And there is experimentation with biofeedback productive? technologies to help individuals without training in • What role does – or can – silence play in specific contemplative practices learn relatively quickly how to processes such as decision-making, conflict reso- achieve at least some effects (see, e.g., Astin 2004). lution, mediation, and innovation? Research and design questions suggested by these • What conditions may prevent the productive developments include: potential of silence from being realized? • What social, physiological, or cognitive cues alert • How can ambient computing technologies that one individual or group to information being register changes in an environment be used to presented to others (and thus become a disruption enhance or protect silence and/or contemplative of silence or contemplation)? practices? • We know that social norms have quickly adapted • In addition to control over the movement of to the constant interruption of conversations by attention between periphery and center, what other cell phones. How can such trends in normative types of cognitive information processing enhance change be reversed, and under what circumstances contemplative experience, and how might such would it be appropriate to do so? forms of processing be facilitated technologically? 290 SANDRA BRAMAN

• How should relationships among the three types of Arguments are beginning to be articulated invisibility – true invisibility, transparency, and regarding new ways of protecting that right for subordination – be designed in order to maximize individuals who wish to experience silence in their opportunities for contemplative experience? own environments. Carter (2002), for example, sug- • What types of synergies can be developed between gests that the Federal Communications Commission design features intended to maximize invisibility (FCC) should allow property owners to jam all cell for the individual and design features intended to phone transmissions if they prefer not to have noisy shape particular aspects of group experience? intrusions into their auditory space. The do-not-call • What are the training and educational implications list (which prohibits marketers from calling those regarding the diffusion of invisible, slow, and calm who have placed their phone numbers on a national technologies among individuals and groups with- list) is another way that individuals can use the law to out a previous history of contemplative practice? protect silence in the home (Nelson 2003). It is worth • How will technical breakdowns be dealt with emphasizing that both of these involve the use of in situations in which users aren’t even aware of technologies to protect legal rights, much as tech- the systems in place? nologies such as DRM (digital rights management) • What contextual elements for technologies and are coming into use to protect copyright. Dey et al. technological systems are necessary to facilitate (2001) provide leadership by linking their consider- contemplative experience? ation of calm technologies with a review of associated social policy issues. Questions for further consideration here include: Law • What would a comprehensive review of current U.S. law and regulation dealing with silence A comprehensive view of treatment of silence within reveal? the U.S. legal system has not yet been presented, but • How should the right to silence and the right to we know a few things: While the Fifth Amendment speech be balanced? protects the right to remain silent when questioned in • At the level of principles, what normative as well the courtroom or when confronted by the police, as technological practices must be in play so that enacting this right does not come without cost, for technological operationalization of individual doing so communicates the likelihood of guilt [see, choices regarding silence do not impede other e.g., Cotterrill 2005; and Justice Scalia’s opinion in social processes? Brogan v. US (1998); Waters 2006]. Silence on the • Who owns shared public inputs and outputs in part of an individual when stopped by the police has environments in which some may prefer silence been treated as ‘probable cause’ justifying search and and/or silence is necessary or preferred for the seizure (Estrada 2005; Kelly 2006), and knowing contemplative construction of reality? silence regarding material information can be treated • How should access rights to shared resources in as misrepresentation (Finneran 1995; Lloyd 1990). public places be managed in order to enable and The opposite argument, however, has also been facilitate silence and contemplative practices? effective. Thus silence following a Miranda warning6 • In cases in which liability accrues from the when arrested has been used as evidence of sanity at imposition of silence in public places, how should the time of a crime (McHugh 1985). Specific legal those issues be handled? rules have been developed specific to the problem of • Given the role of silence in knowledge production drawing evidentiary inferences from silence (Mueller and consolidation, its value in the perception and and Kirkpatrick 2005) as part of the infrastructure of memory of important news, and its probable value rules and processes that has been built up to opera- in conflict resolution, should there be legal or tionalize the constitutional commitment to due regulatory interventions regarding the use of process.7 silence in such environments as the educational system or in the processes of conflict resolution?

6 The Miranda warning is the legally required statement in the US to someone being arrested that s/he has the right to remain silent and that any information provided may be The contemplative construction of reality used against him or her. within information ecologies 7 An informal policy permits politicians to remain silent in the face of questions from the public or journalists The map of what we know about the nature of silence (McKenzie 2005). is fragmented, but hints appear regarding how to fill WHEN NIGHTINGALES BREAK THE LAW 291 in some of the lacunae when we enlarge the context References yet again. Daniel Heller-Roazen’s book Echolalias: On the forgetting of language (2005) provides a pro- J.A. Arlow. Silence and the Theory of Technique. Journal found theoretical framework for understanding the of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 9: 44–55, productive – and, indeed, necessary – qualities of 1961. silence as the fount of all communication and J.A. Astin. 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