The Institutional Framing of Policy Debates: Economics Versus the Environment

Abstract

By framing the economics versus environment debate as a mixed-motive situation, opportunities become visible which allow greater benefits to all interests in the debate. Yet, social, cultural and institutional arrangements frame how we see these opportunities, creating a barrier to mixed-motive analyses. In this paper, we will use an institutional perspective to analyze how the economics versus environment debate emerges from institutions as presently structured. We will present an analysis of its present framing based on three aspects of institutions — regulative, normative and cognitive — and consider the prescriptive implications they expose at the managerial and organizational level of action. We conclude with an analysis of possible solutions to overcome them