Swedish bureaucratic biodiversity: Analysing municipal worker discourse with the theory of sociocultural viability

Benedict E. Singleton

doi:10.1002/eet.2091

journal article Open Access Nov 27, 2023

Swedish bureaucratic biodiversity: Analysing municipal worker discourse with the theory of sociocultural viability

Benedict E. Singleton

Environmental Policy and Governance Vol. 34 No. 4 pp. 400-413 · Wiley

View at Publisher Save 10.1002/eet.2091

Abstract

AbstractCities are important sites for societal transitions towards sustainability, which is increasingly recognised around the issue of biodiversity conservation and protection. However, cities are often characterised by the need to develop and grow. Furthermore, efforts to promote sustainable development have been criticised as failing to address the fundamental causes of environmental destruction. In this article, based on interviews with bureaucrats and documentary analysis, I explore urban planning and biodiversity protection at four Swedish municipalities. Biodiversity protection has been an official goal in Sweden for 30 years. As such, my research aim is to explore how Swedish bureaucrats represent efforts to balance imperatives to develop cities and protect biodiversity. Taking an institutional approach, I identify what information is included and excluded. In assessing municipal discourse, I utilise the theory of sociocultural viability, which provides an analytical typology of four worldviews. I identify that within respondents' discourse, biodiversity primarily emerges as a product of a hierarchical view of reality, as a measurable object; an indicator; a characteristic; and as a provider that is both engineerable and replaceable. This was despite numerous respondents articulating an egalitarian desire for more holistic interpretations of biodiversity in urban planning, appreciative of its inherent worth. This suggests that biodiversity has largely been integrated into extant hierarchical conceptualisations of public administration. According to cultural theory, addressing wicked policy problems effectively requires insight from several of the typology's worldviews. As such, current practice may reiterate dominant contemporary views on nature rather than innovation towards a radically different society.

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Details

Published: Nov 27, 2023
Vol/Issue: 34(4)
Pages: 400-413
License: View

Authors

B

Benedict E. Singleton

Department of Global Political Studies Malmö University Malmö Sweden; Department for Sociology and Work Science University of Gothenburg Gothenburg Sweden

Funding

Svenska Forskningsrådet Formas Award: 2021‐01720_Formas

Cite This Article

Benedict E. Singleton (2023). Swedish bureaucratic biodiversity: Analysing municipal worker discourse with the theory of sociocultural viability. Environmental Policy and Governance, 34(4), 400-413. https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.2091

Swedish bureaucratic biodiversity: Analysing municipal worker discourse with the theory of sociocultural viability

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