Abstract
Any adequate analysis of environmental governance necessarily requires fundamental understanding of the worldviews underlying the views expressed with respect to environmental governance. This paper is based on the premise that any worldview can be associated with one of the four basic paradigms: functionalist, interpretive, radical humanist, and radical structuralist. It argues that any view expressed with respect to environmental governance is based on one of the four paradigms or worldviews. This paper takes the case of environmental governance and discusses it from four different viewpoints, each of which corresponds to one of the four broad worldviews. The paper emphasizes that the four views expressed are equally scientific and informative; they look at the phenomenon from their certain paradigmatic viewpoint; and together they provide a more balanced and comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon under consideration. These four paradigms are of paramount importance to any scientist, because the process of learning about a favored paradigm is also the process of learning what that paradigm is not. The knowledge of paradigms makes scientists aware of the boundaries within which they approach their subject. Each of the four paradigms implies a different way of social theorizing.
Presenters
Kavous ArdalanProfessor of Finance, School of Management, Marist College, New York, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Environmental Management; Paradigms, Worldviews; Diversity; Understanding
