Investigating environmental policies under various environmental discourses

Abstract

An environmental discourse is a set of unified contexts, approaches and beliefs surrounding an ideology that shapes the actions of governments and organizations in handling environmental issues. The embedded ideologies influence the hierarchy of issues and actors in handling the issues and ultimately determine how key actors and stakeholders interact.This paper explores the effect of environmental discourses in environmental policy formation and subsequent changes in policy style. Different environmental discourses will be investigated to understand the basic characteristics. Policy style in different developing countries will be assessed to identify their dominant discourse. The compatibility of the current social-political structure with sustainability will also be assessed. Discourse analysis helps to illustrate the prevailing environmental movement and policy style of a society, which in tum helps to show the way to greater sustainability.