66 Sustainability Assessment

of forest land use, social attitudes indicate society’s willingness to participate or to deny the proposition and can be determined by the status of policy or the resource itself. Thus, in the specific case of environmental sustainability, social attitudes involve both technical issues of resources such as: status of forest types, species, productivity, processing and utilization, and socioeconomic issues adhered to the people, their culture, education, income, and supply demand variables. Thus, if social attitude is considered, assessment of policy sustainability does not depend on the resource or environmental system only but also on the sociocultural system.

The relationship between resource and culture may be critical for social attitude. For example, although many authors blame colonization as responsible for the resource degradation of many developed countries, they did not mean that all the resources were exhausted during colonial time. However, as the sociocultural development was not maintained, the liberation of social attitude developed during colonial times produced an unsustainable situation later—during postcolonial times.

The discussions in the above few sections show that in developing countries, where population is very high and socioeconomic condition is not very progressive, it is reasonable to assume that social issues are crucial to the sustainability of resource conditions and should be part of the resource policy. Therefore, an understanding of policy elements is important for adjusting social elements in sustainability assessment.

5.3 ISSUES RELATED TO POLICY DISCOURSE

From the discussion in the previous sections, it is understandable that appropriate policy implication is important for organizing the social issues toward sustainability. New elements, instruments, and strategies as well as emerging works of supernational organizations (secondary organizations) are backing the policy implication toward sustainability (Hajer, 1995). This is an example of “discursive action” equivalent to actions of “paradigm shift” as conceptualized by Mather (1997). Although this conventional discursive approach seems different from the sustainability concept, in fact various practices at microlevel could influence the way in which sustainability is interpreted to make the resources manageable and available for the future needs of a progressive

society (OECD, 1985). This point of sustainability is to show the sheer variety of ways in which policy discourse influences the process of social change and how the reproduction of the demise of social structures depends upon the outcome of discursive interaction. The elements of such discourses can be treated as policy strategies. Some of the elements of policy strategies are discussed in the following sections.

5.3.1 Discourses of Story Line

The concept of “story line” was used by Hajer (1995) to mean recurring figures of speeches that dominate public understanding of sustainability, which help in rationalization and naturalization of the existing social order of developed countries. For example, in Britain, a story line can be built up on any sustainability issues addressing the period before and after the World War II. Usually, people in Britain become very much emotional as well as proud over the story line referring World War II. Thus, a story line of historic importance and of national pride often works very well if can be integrated with the policy line. People of Bangladesh are also becoming very emotional on the history of their independence war, which can be used successfully in the policy line. In practice, each nation has some events/issues in their history the discourses of which can be taken as a strategic element for motivating people. Thus, story lines are social events used as elements for sustainable climate policy.

5.3.2 Discourses of Disjunction Maker

Policy-making institutions of a country had their own legitimate ways of denying the institutional dimension of the sustainability challenge. These so called “disjunction makers” constitute essential elements in the policy evaluation. For example, in Britain if scientific evidences constituted an unavoidable hurdle for any attempt of changing environment policies, business corporations may lobby for avoiding an environmental concern to minimize the cost. Such agents may be termed as “disjunction maker.” In developing countries, though raising people’s awareness may be used as potential force for sustainable policies, inadequate information and evidences of scientific dichotomy may impede the awareness producing an effect similar to a disjunction maker. Thus, disjunction makers are unfavorable social elements normally prevailing within the society but appearing as disjunction makers when publicized repeatedly by actors/players in forums like

68 Sustainability Assessment

social media. Therefore, policy evaluation engages in an explanation of such elements because of which a policy may become unsuccessful.

5.3.3 Discourses of Symbolic Politics

The term symbolic politics means the social elements to which most attention of policies is driven. Different policies may have different strategies to take sustainability problems within the policy. For example, in developed countries, if public awareness grows on a certain aspect of the environment, then government may immediately seek to take some policy measures. If successful, the success becomes the political achievement of the government. Therefore, it is expected that the quality of environmental policy will improve day by day. In developing countries like Bangladesh, such things rarely happen, mainly due to lack of funding and sometimes lack of expertise. The political symbols remain oriented around hunger, thus in many instances, environmental issues are politically overlooked. However, improving hunger and poverty can also be symbolic as environmental improvement if done not for a mere political gain but for a sustainable improvement. These examples signify that political symbols should somehow be included in policy elements used for generating sustainable social impact.

5.3.4 Discourses of Sensor Component

The sensor components are social elements that can be used as an important tool for triggering a feel for policy formulation; particularly noneconomic issues like environmental sustainability. Often meetings and conferences may trigger the sense of a policy maker for undertaking a policy or to identify whether a policy target is right or wrong. If policy makers visit the problem area and study it, the problem initiates the concern for formulating policy. However, sensory incidents are different for different societies, their education, and culture. For example, once folklore was favorable, sensor equipment for initiating policies in Bangladesh. People used to go to village markets and schools to organize folklore songs to disseminate information about social desire. There are many examples in Bangladesh like the movement against British rule, the spread of the concept of fundamental democracy during Pakistan regime, even the recent Bangladesh independence movement was influenced by folklore song. Thus, sensor components are social elements or resource status, which create a condition for policy initiation or policy implementation. The publications like Limits to