Toward a common environmental language? Reflections on the “Keywords” project in Bristol

When we speak of the environment and environmental change, do we know what we mean? Interdisciplinary conversations frequently reveal different understandings of apparently commonplace terms – “adaptation,” “resilience,” “transitions,” and indeed “environment” itself. As a set of disciplines with strong roots in the study of languages and societies, the environmental humanities are well placed to map obstacles to comprehension and to trace paths towards common understanding. Eppelsheimer, Küchler and Melin have made this argument in relation to “foreign” language education, writing that “opening discussions of ecocriticism and environmental imagination to the aspect of language” can lead to the emergence of “new paths to resilience” (2015). Yet sensitivity to differing understandings of key terms is also crucial for broader environmental education in the humanities (Sze 2016), for policy engagement (Zhang et al. 2019), and for scholars’ ability to develop meaningful relationships with community organisations and other non-academic stakeholders. This article documents an initiative addressing this last point. Between 2021 and 2024, the authors ran a series of workshops involving academics and a range of community organizations. This experience revealed that while accessible and inclusive language is fundamental to establishing productive collaborations between academia and wider society, other factors (such as sustainable funding and creative methods for coproduction) are equally important. The article concludes by suggesting that a "common language" for engaged environmental research must therefore extend beyond words, to include shared images, spaces and practices, in order to achieve concrete outcomes.