Confronting the demands of a deliberative public sphere with media constraints

Political theory in forest policy science

“…It is not an easy question to answer, especially if one considers critical theories, as several of the papers in this volume do (Kleinschmit, 2010;Buizer and Van Herzele, 2010;Winkel, 2011). In its broadest understanding, a theory proposes ontology or epistemology on a social reality or events, and formulates axioms.…”

“…For instance, the family of theories referred to as critical policy analysis (i.e. critical theories) includes both the Habermasian deliberative discourse theory (Buizer and Van Herzele, 2010;Kleinschmit, 2010) and the quite distinct Foucauldian discourse theory (Buizer and Van Herzele, 2010;Winkel, 2011). The topography is based on differences that can graphically be expressed along two axes that reflect two conceptual continuums (Arts, 2011).…”

“…Some of the theories within a single family are more specific than others. Both Kleinschmit (2010) and Winkel (2011) refer to the theory that they discuss in their papers as meta-theory. While a meta-theory is ambiguously defined in the literature, in the two papers the term refers to a theory that is applicable to a wider domain and that states relationships between terms and variables that apply to a number of more specific theories.…”

“…Over the last decades, forest policy scholars increasingly are using policy theories and frameworks to enlighten their analysis and build their arguments instead of theorizing solely within a forest knowledge context. Furthermore, the emergence of "critical theories" in policy science (Arts, 2011;Winkel, 2011;Kleinschmit, 2010) has opened a new approach in forest policy sciences as interpretative policy analysis privileges critiquing policies or other societal arrangements, rather than explaining them.…”

“…The papers can roughly be divided into two groups. The first group of papers talk about theory, either a particular theory (e.g., Kleinschmit, 2010;Krott, 2011;Sotirov and Memmler, 2011;Winkel, 2011) or several theories or theories in general (Arts, 2011;Weber, 2011) and makes a link with forest policy science. The papers in the second group, on the other hand, address a particular forest or nature policy case and apply one or more theories as examples of the use of policy science theory in forest policy analysis (Arnouts et al, 2011;Böcher, 2011;Buizer and Van Herzele, 2010;de Jong and Ruiz, 2011;Van Gossum et al, 2009).…”