A decade of discourse analysis of environmental politics: Achievements, challenges, perspectives

TLDR

Discourse is defined as a linguistic regularity in conversations, distinct from deliberation or discussion, and, amid changing policymaking, analysts must identify new political sites and dynamics. This article evaluates how discourse analysis has contributed to environmental politics over the past decade and outlines forthcoming challenges. Discourse analysis focuses on situational logics by studying language-in-use. The study identifies three strengths: revealing language’s role in politics, its embeddedness in practices, and its ability to answer “how” questions and illuminate mechanisms.

Abstract

Abstract This article assesses the contribution of discourse analysis to the study of environmental politics over the period of the past decade. Defining discourse as a particular linguistic regularity that can be found in conversations distinguishes it from 'deliberation' and 'discussion'. Discourse analysis is seen as focused on situational logics studying 'language-in-use'. Three strengths of discourse analysis are highlighted: its capacity to reveal the role of language in politics, its capacity to reveal the embeddedness of language in practices and its capacity to answer 'how' questions and to illuminate mechanisms. The article concludes by sketching some of the challenges lying ahead of discourse analysis. Given the changing nature of policy making, discourse analysts are supposed to have a task in identifying the new sites of politics and analysing the political dynamics therein.