Politics increasingly introduces initiatives supporting a shift toward a bioeconomy aiming at a society relying strongly on renewable biological sources while achieving economic growth efficiently and sustainably. However, the agenda of bioeconomy comprises different "shades of green," in the sense that different actors stress different aspects of the concept, when embracing it in communication. This conceptual paper aims to present policy and socioeconomic theoretical frameworks and research areas relevant for a more holistic understanding of the bioeconomy concept applied to the forest sector, and identify a core set of potential contributions from social sciences for enhancing the bioeconomy in the forest sector. The paper focuses on studies within policy analysis, economics, and business administration disciplines. Thus it presents diverse disciplinary perspectives on the forest sector in a bioeconomy. Furthermore, innovation and sustainability have been identified as issues relevant to be approached across these disciplines.

This study considers structural engineers' and architects' perceptions of structural timber in multi-story construction contexts. Qualitative approaches-interviews and focus groupswere used to investigate attitudes, perceived norms, and perceived factors that hamper or facilitate the prescription of wood use in construction. Wood was perceived as an appropriate building material. Architects', and even more so engineers', perceptions of negative aspects of wood focused on decay, instability and sound transmission. Although wood-based construction was seen as a required professional skill, it was not expected to improve one's professional status. Positive aspects of wood in construction included its strength, environmental friendliness, simple handling and appropriateness for use in conjunction with industrial methods, whereas knowledge gaps and weak support from the wood industry have reduced the use of wood among structural engineers and architects. Both professions perceived their influence on material selection to be weak. They sensed that most of the influence over material selection rested with developers and contractors. The paper contains suggestions on how to make these two professions more influential advocates for wood in construction.

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The theory of planned behaviour was applied to study the attitude and intention of households towards participating in collective forest management (tree planting) activity. Households were randomly selected from 22 forest user groups. The results indicate that the success of planting activities in terms of survival rate of seedlings has a strong effect in motivating households to participate in planting. Although households in general show a positive attitude and intention to participate in tree planting, there were significant differences among households on the basis of socio-economic characteristics. Dependence on crop income, possession of bigger farmlands and better physical assets, and higher education level are positively related to intention to participate in planting activity. On the other hand, dependence on forest income is negatively related to attitude and intention. A continuous exchange of ideas and information between user groups and the government counterparts that provide technical support and advice is recommended.