Projektstart: 01.01.2012

Projektende: 01.01.2015

Laufzeit: 3 Jahre

Projektverantwortung vor Ort: Prof. Dr. Reiner Keller

Beteiligte WissenschaftlerInnen der Universität Augsburg: Sina Leipold

Beteiligte WissenschaftlerInnen / Kooperationen: Dr. Georg Winkel, Prof. Ulrich Schraml

The major question is how discursive agency can be conceptualized across the national and the international level in illegal logging discourses. As illegal logging policy predominantly addresses international trade flows and forests outside of the regulating state’s territory, the discourses shaping this policy are closely linked to international discourses – making it a particularly suitable case for analysis.

In order to answer this research question, Sina is currently in the field (2013/2014) scrutinizing the specific policy discourses on the US Lacey Act amendment of 2008 (in the USA) and the EU Timber Regulation (in Germany and Sweden). During stays in each of the countries, she conducts a comprehensive discourse analysis of policy-relevant documents and interviews stakeholders in key positions who have been involved in policy making and implementation. She is very grateful for the invaluable academic support by Benjamin Cashore at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (USA) and Daniela Kleinschmit at Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet Uppsala (Sweden) during her fieldwork. She also thankfully acknowledges the financial support of her PhD project by the German Research Foundation (DFG).