Page 41 - Governing Congo Basin Forests in a Changing Climate • Olufunso Somorin

Table 1-3: The four new institutionalisms (adapted from Schmidt, 2010; Raitio, 2013)
RI
HI
SI
DI
Definition of institutions
Object of explanation
Logic of explanation
Approach to change
Explanation of change
Incentive structures
Behaviour and interests of rational actors
Calculation
Static – continuity through fixed preferences and stable institutions
Exogenous shock
Macro-historical structures and regularities
Historical rules and regularities
Path-dependency
Static – continuity through path dependency
Exogenous shock by critical junctures
Norms and culture of social agents
Cultural norms and frames
Appropriateness
Static – continuity through cultural norms and rules
Exogenous shock
Meaning structures 1 and constructs
Ideas and discourse
Communication
Dynamic – change (and continuity) through ideas
and discursive interaction
Endogenous processes through reframing, recasting of collective memories.
General Introduction and Research Setting
1.3.2 Discursive Institutionalism and Environmental Governance
As a relatively new branch of neo-institutionalism, discursive institutionalism (DI) is an umbrella concept for many different approaches that “see ideas as constituting the policy narratives, discourses and frame of reference which serve to (re)construct the actors’ understanding of interests and redirect their actions within institutions” (Schmidt and Radaelli, 2004 p. 341). DI differs from other ideational and constructivist approaches (e.g. feminist) in that it is more concerned about elucidating the dynamics of change through discursive interactions in a (formal) institutional context, hence institutionalism (Schmidt, 2013; Crespy and Schmidt, 2014).
DI takes into account the institutional context in which discourses emerge and the way in which they are institutionalized in social practices (Schmidt, 2008; Arts and Buizer, 2009 Den Besten et al., 2014). According to Scot (2001), DI assumes: (a) the important role of discourses in influencing actors’ preferences, interests and behaviour; and (b) the role of these discourses in assuring institutional stability, while simultaneously triggering and legitimizing institutional change. Additionally, DI scholars consider the discursive processes by which such ideas are deliberated in a ‘communicative’ political sphere and
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