The Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning (JEPP) is an international journal that provides a forum for the analysis of environmental policy and planning. They are celebrating 25 volumes of the Journal by presenting one paper from each volume – all of which are open access for 3 months! The papers have been selected by our current Editorial Team using the following criteria: citations, originality, relevance to our aims and scope, impact in terms of engagement and contribution to theoretical conceptualisation, and gender balance.
Discourse analysis is becoming an increasingly common approach in planning and environmental policy research. This paper asserts that the generic treatment of discourse analysis obscures distinct approaches in which ‘discourses’ can combine different elements of text, systems of thought and action. Textually oriented approaches have been more prevalent during the 1990s, but this paper explores a different approach, grounded in the theory of Michel Foucault, which broadens discourse to embrace social action. Comparing and contrasting two studies that have utilized this approach, the paper suggests that there is considerable room for variation concerning the subjects of study, the institutional scale of analyses, the methods of investigation and process of analysis. Nevertheless, this paper identifies certain core elements of a Foucauldian discourse analytic approach. The paper concludes that this emerging approach to discourse analysis promises considerable insights if applied more widely in planning and environmental research.