The latest review article by Tim Forsyth (right), ‘Deliberative Democracy and Climate Change’, has been published in the Public Administration journal.

Prof. Forsyth considers how approaches to climate change studies from other disciplines adds to the orthodox approach from within international relations. See the abstract below:

“Since the emergence of anthropocentric climate change as a theme of public policy some 25 years ago, much academic debate has taken place within the discipline of International Relations, and especially the study of how competing nation states can overcome national interests in order to sign international agreements to limit greenhouse gases.

“Increasingly, scholars from other academic disciplines such as sociology and public policy have begun to analyse climate change politics. These approaches differ from the traditional approach of International Relations because they focus more upon how different sub-state social actors such as citizens and businesses contest climate change politics, and how their actions are governed by underlying discourses, rather than on the analysis of national interests alone.

“A key theme of this analysis is deliberative democracy—or the achievement of political actions through open debate, and the consideration of differences between actors.

“The books in this review have all made statements about deliberative democracy and climate change governance. In particular, they discuss how consensus might be achieved on climate change policy between different actors who adopt discourses. In addition, they also consider how deliberation can help developing countries become more involved in climate change policy.

“Yet, these books also show different approaches to deliberative politics, and especially the role of climate science (as currently discussed), and of developing countries.”

Read the full article here.

Interested in climate change and sustainability? Check out Tim Dyson’s keynote speech at the UN.