Can We Talk Ourselves into Sustainability? The Role of Discourse in the Environmental Policy Process

There has been a recent expansion of work within a variety of theoretical frameworks which looks at the role of discourses in policy and politics, much of it focused on environmental issues. Within this there is a particular category of polemical material which argues for discourse management and for managing discourse between actors towards achieving a particular goal, such as sustainable development. The paper examines the different ways in which the significance of environmental discourse is recognised and its influence analysed. It critically examines the claims made for normative discourse management and highlights the need to consider carefully the institutions through which environmental policy discourse is mediated.