The role of forests in climate change mitigation : a discursive-institutional analysis of REDD+ MRV

Killing nature to save it? : an analysis of two sport hunting policy arrangements in Uganda

“…The use of a triangulation approach enabled an understanding of the different aspects of the empirical reality (Jennings, 2001) about sport hunting in its context-specific settings (Hoepfl, 1997), thus respecting and staying close to the empirical domain of what was being researched. Different studies have affirmed the importance of combining different methods to collect and validate data on complex topics (see Ayana, 2014;Bose, 2012;Ochieng, 2017;Somorin, 2014). Below, I discuss the methods of data collection and analysis used.…”

“…DI scholars study how new ideas and discourses become institutionalised into rules that enable, guide and constrain actors' behaviour in society. Therefore, DI is preoccupied with understanding the role of ideas and discourses in explaining politics, policymaking and institutional change (Ochieng, 2017;Schmidt, 2008), with institutional change referring to a scenario where an 'institution may lose parts of its constituency and become contested' (Van Wijk et al, 2011:6). This change is viewed as emerging from within the institutional structures itself, and not externally as assumed by the older three traditions (Schmidt, 2002;.…”

“…The concept of institutions, on the other hand, is used to study rules at all levels of governance, so from local to (inter-)national levels (Ochieng, 2017;Schmidt, 2008). Although there is no commonly agreed definition, institutions are synonymous to rules of the game (Ostrom et al, 1994;Schmidt, 2008).…”

“…New-institutionalist or neo-institutionalist scholars (e.g. Arts & Buizer, 2009;Schmidt, 2008; conceptualise institutions or regimes as societal instruments that shape, guide and constrain human action and agency (Arts, 2006;Ochieng, 2017;Scott, 2001). Although regimes and institutions are thought to be synonymous, the two concepts are usually used at different levels of governance (Visseren-Hamakers, 2018), with the concept of regimes usually referring to institutions at the international level.…”

“…It is now increasingly used within Southern and Eastern Africa (see e.g. Ahebwa et al, 2012ab;Lamers et al, 2014;Majale-Liyala, 2013;Nthiga, 2014;Nthiga et al, 2015;Ochieng, 2011;Ochieng, 2017;Ochieng et al, 2013;Van der Duim et al, 2011), and also Asia (see Dang et al, 2015) and South America (see Ochieng et al, 2013;. A policy arrangement is defined as '…the temporary stabilization of the content and organization of a policy domain' (Arts et al, 2006: 96), and incorporates four dimensi ons, namely discourses, actors, rules and resources.…”