The Evolution of the Concept of Environmental Discourses: Is Environmental Ideologies a Useful Concept?

Abstract

The concept of environmental discourses currently has two distinct meanings in environmental politics. The first approach emphasizes its traditional meaning, as textual and spoken interactions about the environment. The second, more recent approach utilizes the notion of environmental discourses as group worldviews towards the environment. This paper discusses the evolution of the term environmental discourses and the appropriateness of each approach for environmental politics scholarship. This study develops the concept of environmental ideologies as a belief system towards the environment, using the analogy of political ideologies that describes systems of beliefs towards political, social, and economic structures of a society. A formula: environmental discourse = environmental issue environmental ideology allows combining three core concepts of environmental politics: environmental issues come into environmental discourse, and, therefore, into existence as environmental policy problems, through the lens of environmental ideologies.

Keywords: environmental discourses, environmental ideologies, environmental issues