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Philosophical Foundations of Environmental Policy Analysis: Can Critical Realism Bridge the Neopositivist/Interpretivist Divide?

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  • Carter, Andrew Pearce

    (Defenders of Wildlife)

Abstract

Traditional environmental policy analysis has followed a neopositivist epistemological frame, using the natural sciences as a template as to how social-ecological problems can be analyzed. Such approaches to policy analysis have been caught up in the same crisis as the social sciences have in general: an overarching failure to create a predictive science of society or to consistently provide solutions to social problems. This has led some policy researchers to align with the interpretivist turn, which has had its own drawbacks. In this review I summarize the historical development and main tenets of both approaches, examining their advantages and disadvantages. I then review an alternative epistemological approach to social science, critical realism, which combines an ontological realism with an epistemological relativism, a focus on elucidating causal mechanisms in the social-ecological systems studied, an approach that may be particularly suited for analyzing the complex social-ecological systems studied in environmental policy analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • Carter, Andrew Pearce, 2021. "Philosophical Foundations of Environmental Policy Analysis: Can Critical Realism Bridge the Neopositivist/Interpretivist Divide?," SocArXiv u8hgk, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:u8hgk
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/u8hgk
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dan Durning, 1999. "The transition from traditional to postpositivist policy analysis: A role for Q-methodology," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(3), pages 389-410.
    2. Douglas J. Amy, 1984. "Why policy analysis and ethics are incompatible," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 3(4), pages 573-591.
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