Understanding Conceptual Innovation in the Environmental Policy Realm

This paper examines processes of conceptual innovation in the environmental domain. Major political and social change is typically accompanied by innovation in the thought categories we use to make sense of the world, frame arguments, organize collective action, and establish new institutional practices. Over the past four decades the environmental policy field has been characterised by repeated waves of conceptual innovation as new ideas have been invoked to identify problems, analyze causes and present solutions. Concepts like 'sustainable development', 'biodiversity', 'resilience', 'acid rain', 'ecological footprint' or 'planetary boundaries' are all new ideas which have come to structure arguments and choices in the environmental policy realm. The paper asks question about the innovation process including: where do these new ideas come from? What determines their eventual uptake? And in what circumstances and to what the extent do they impact outputs and outcomes of the environmental administration.