Sustainable development and policy change: changing policies through discourse
Panel Chairs:
Maarten Hajer, Universiteit van Amsterdam
Florent Clement, LET-ENTPE, University of Lyon, florent.clement@entpe.fr
Sonia Lemettre, LET-ENTPE, University of Lyon, sonia.lemettre@entpe.fr
Abstract:
This panel focuses on sustainable development as a discourse that can change public policies. Indeed, it is commonly admitted that sustainable development has emerged as a linchpin of consensus building for environmental policies (Hajer, 1995). Nevertheless, a neat definition of it as a concept is still missing. That's why we propose to consider sustainable development as a discourse that can be contested and shaped out, instead of a goal or a path (Dryzek, 2005). In this context, this panel puts sustainable development to the test of discourse analysis (Fischer, 2003; Fischer and Black, 1995; Hajer and Versteeg, 2005; Hajer, 1995) in order to highlight the mechanisms by which sustainable development transforms, or not, public policies.
We particularly welcome papers which tackle the question of the impact of the sustainability discourse on policy-making processes. To that purpose, the role of policy instruments and 'new' actors (such as environmental NGOs) can be investigated, in order to participate to this debate on the political and institutional structures required to achieve the challenge of sustainability. Papers which clearly rely on an empirical research would be preferred.
The following questions can be explored (non exhaustive):
- How does the sustainability discourse participate to the elaboration of transversal policies, such as climate change policy? For these questions, what sort of government should we be looking for?
- To what extent this discourse is used as a resource by actors to transform policies?
- What is the impact of the sustainable discourse on actors' argumentations? And in what extend does it has an impact on policy instruments?
- How do new policy-making processes transform policy debates? Who are the agents of change?
