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2 - On Discourse-Intensive Approaches to Environmental Decision-Making: Applying Social Theory to Practice

from Part I - Methods

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2020

By
Steven E. Daniels  and
Gregg B. Walker
Edited by
Katharine Legun ,
Julie C. Keller ,
Michael Carolan  and
Michael M. Bell
Katharine Legun
Affiliation:
Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands
Julie C. Keller
Affiliation:
University of Rhode Island
Michael Carolan
Affiliation:
Colorado State University
Michael M. Bell
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Madison
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Summary

The rise of multi-party processes in which people with quite different ties to a region, natural resource-related industry, or environmental issue work collaboratively to hammer out mutually acceptable agreements is arguably one of the biggest shifts in environmental management over the past twenty-five years. This chapter engages in some sensemaking around this diverse and evolving phenomenon in two ways. First, an approach to designing collaborative natural resource-related discourse with a particularly strong theoretical foundation (Collaborative Learning) is presented to illustrate how theory is manifest in practice. Second a recent best practices/common features list is examined through the perspectives of four social science theorists: Max Weber, Pierre Bourdieu, Niklas Luhmann, and Muzafer Sherif. The practical recommendations that emerge from this list is largely consistent with the larger social and communicative dynamics articulated by these theorists.

Keywords

Collaborationcollaborative learningcommunicationconflictWeberBourdieuLuhmannSherif
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Sociology , pp. 29 - 46
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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