The Spirit of Environmentalism A Cultural Approach to Environmental Policy Analysis

Abstract

Environmental policy analysis is based on contradictory facts which shape the communicative nature of environmental policy-making. This is the reason why environmental policy-making has to be based on a notion of procedural rationality. To explain the specific dynamics of communication in environmental policy-making, the contradictory nature of environmental facts is analysed: such facts are based on opposing cultural world views, deeply embedded in the Judeo-Christian tradition of European culture. Their procedural rationality has to mediate not anly between factual claims, but also between competing and often incommensurable cultures.

Key words:

• Environmentalism
• policy analysis
• cultural theory
• spirit of environmentalism