Reflections on theories in forest policy: Testing, combining or building?

Norbert Weber

Forest Policy and Economics, 2012, vol. 16, issue C, 102-108

Abstract: Theories constitute an important part of science and contribute to its advancement. As a consequence of the variety of scientific approaches available, students of forest policy can choose between three alternatives: (i) relying on and applying an existing theory, (ii) attempting to combine several theories in a new context or (iii) creating a new theory based on their own experiences and findings from desk research and/or empirical surveys. Whereas alternatives (i) and (ii) have been chosen in the majority of scientific studies focusing on the relationship between forests and people, theory building has not as yet been commonly applied in forest policy research. Seeking to discern both the advantages and disadvantages of these approaches, the methodological aspects of each are emphasised in this paper. Subsequent to an outline of the general significance of theories for scientific research practised in the social sciences, and a depiction of the features of ‘good’ theories, the widespread procedure for testing existing theories is outlined. This is followed by descriptions of several techniques employed in theory building. Finally, some conclusions on the application of existing theories and on theory building in the context of forest policy are presented. It is argued that given its innovative potential, theory building should not be neglected in forest policy discipline.

Keywords: Forest policy; Philosophy of science; Methodology; Theory building; Paradigms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1389934111000141
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:forpol:v:16:y:2012:i:c:p:102-108

DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2011.02.003

Access Statistics for this article

Forest Policy and Economics is currently edited by M. Krott

More articles in Forest Policy and Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().