Place Perceptions and Controversies over Forest Management: Exploring a Swedish Example

Abstract

This article explores the role of place perceptions in controversies over forest management. A neo-Durkheimian approach to frame analysis is used to explore actors' perceptions of places, forests and policy. This is combined with an examination of actors' varying capacity to influence policy-making using an interpretive policy analysis framework. Empirically, the analysis investigates a controversy over natural resource management in Jokkmokk municipality, northern Sweden. The research draws upon qualitative data collected from a variety of state, economic and social actors. It shows how a systematic analysis of place-related frames can elucidate the policy-making process. It demonstrates how conflicting place meanings divide actors, their frames and interpretive communities. However, social organization and loyalties are also important in shaping actions. The analytical framework offers a sociologically based approach to exploring the role of place perceptions in natural resource politics. It facilitates in-depth understanding of policy-making and may thus contribute to strengthening efforts to manage conflicts and to develop equitable governance systems for natural resource management.

Keywords:

• place perceptions
• forest conflicts
• frame analysis
• interpretive policy analysis

Acknowledgements

The research was funded through Future Forests, a multi-disciplinary research programme supported by the Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research (MISTRA), the Swedish Forestry Industry, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Umeå University and the Forestry Research Institute of Sweden.

Notes

The Sámi are an indigenous people of Northern Fennoscandia.

See Government Decision, 13 June 2002: ‘Uppdrag om naturvärdesbedömning och skydd av viss skog’. M2002/2121/NA.

Sámi Reindeer Herding Communities are legal and economic organizations with exclusive rights to practice reindeer herding. At the same time, they represent territories within which reindeer husbandry takes place.

The controversy continues and since this study was completed significant areas on the lands of the NPB have been proposed for formal protection.