Transitions in environmental policy discourse, from ecologically and socially guided to profit-driven: what is the effect of the institutional policy-making process?

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study is based on the analysis of discourse relevant to an environmental policy, named the Toronto Green Standard (TGS). The study found that while the TGS is dominated by economic-focused environmental discourse, the earliest stages of TGS creation were dominated by ‘transformative’ discourses that problematized development and sought ecological protections and social equity. And while the incompatibility of policy making with transformative discourse has been noted by environmental discourse scholars, along with the compatibility of economic-focused discourse, this study highlights precise mechanisms in the institutional policy making process, which have the effect of excluding transformative discourse and prioritizing economic-focused discourse. The process whereby this discursive exclusion and prioritization takes place is referred to in this study as ‘transformative exclusion’. Despite policy maker interests in transformation, transformative exclusion has the effect of reproducing economic-focused discourse, current power relations and inequalities through environmental policy. This study introduces a new thread of importance for discourse analysis of policy, in identifying precise mechanisms of transformative exclusion within institutional policy making processes. By first identifying them, ideally these mechanisms of discursive force will be challenged, so that institutional policy may one day be welcoming to discourses of transformation.