Discourse analysis of environmental policy revisited: traditions, trends, perspectives

Abstract

Since the mid-1990s, discourse analysis has become an increasingly established framework in environmental policy analysis. The field has diversified in terms of conceptual approaches, methods, topics, and geographies. This special issue revisits trends and traditions regarding theoretical and methodological approaches, 'old' and 'new' discourses, and our knowledge about discursive effects. We contextualize and discuss the twelve contributions to this special issue against the broader trajectory of the field over the past 25 years. Our analysis reveals an abundance of theoretical approaches with limited cross-fertilization, a plethora of rich case studies but few attempts at meta-analysis, and subtle accounts of discursive effects on discourse, policy and practice without an overarching framework. We suggest seven directions for the field's future evolution: a need for more comparative and multiple-case studies, theoretical cross-fertilization, pro-active integration of non-English-speaking research contexts, development of methodological capabilities to capture discursive developments across larger numbers of publics and policy arenas, a more explicit conceptualization of agency, power and materiality, a stronger collaboration with transdisciplinary approaches, and a reflexive engagement with the 'critical' ambition of discourse analysis.

Trading Radical for Incremental Change: The Politics of a Circular Economy Transition in the German Packaging Sector

“…Our study underlines that incremental changes can trigger the continuation of discursive struggles during the phase of implementation. Also, the focus on incremental developments reinforces business-as-usual thinking and therefore limits the potential for radical discursive or social change (Leipold et al, 2019;Mendoza et al, 2017). Finally, it may create mistrust and fatigue of debates.…”

“…To enable solid empirical insights into the role of discourses and agents in this curious case of transition politics, we apply the Discursive Agency Approach (DAA) (Leipold and Winkel, 2017). With this focus, the approach differs from established studies of policy narratives, where specific stakeholders and the use of strategic practices gained less systematic attention so far (Lang et al, 2019;Leipold et al, 2019). We aim to generate an elaborated empirical understanding of the stakeholders' perspectives on political dynamics shaping policy discussions and its outcome.…”

Coming to GRIPs With NETs Discourse: Implications of Discursive Structures for Emerging Governance of Negative Emissions Technologies in the UK

“…However, the concept of "discourse" has various theoretical origins, and understandings of the exact nature of its role in political and societal processes are correspondingly diverse (cf. Leipold et al, 2019). A school of thought driven by the work of Jürgen Habermas has often been (implicitly or explicitly) taken up by those who emphasize the need for new modes of responsible and reflexive governance development.…”

21 years of research for the twenty-first century: revisiting the journal of environmental policy and planning

“…Indeed, in terms of downloads, half of the ten most downloaded papers deal with the energy transition (Avelino & Wittmayer, 2016;Osunmuyiwa et al, 2018;Cowell et al, 2017). The other key issue in terms of downloads is discourse analysis, and three of our ten most downloaded papers focus on this topic (Feindt & Oels, 2005;Leipold et al, 2019;Hajer & Versteeg, 2005). In terms of citations, we again find that papers dealing with sustainability and energy transitions make half of the ten most cited papers Cass et al, 2010;Haggett, 2008;Hindmarsh & Matthews, 2008), with the other five focusing on sustainability governance (Lange et al, 2013), climate adaptation (Bauer et al, 2012;Storbjörk, 2010), local environmental politics in China (Ran, 2013) and marine spatial planning (Kidd & Ellis, 2012).…”

“…In addition to these most popular papers, there are a number of discernible themes around which JEPP has made some particularly important contributions, often centred on Special Issues, which we are now promoting as a key vehicle for some of our most valuable contributions. For example, discursive analysis of environmental policy and planning has been an important part of JEPP's profile, with a Special Issue (Feindt & Oels, 2005) reflecting ten years of Maarten Hajer's seminal book (Hajer, 1995) and a follow-up Special Issue on discourse analysis in 2019 (Leipold et al, 2019). As noted above, these include some of the Journal's most cited papers, and other Special Issues on power/knowledge (Van Assche et al, 2017) and on reflexive governance (Feindt & Weiland, 2018) have further added important insights to this field.…”