The Institutionalization of Environmental Discourse: an Analysis of the History of International Conferences

Objective: Investigate the institutionalization of environmental protection discourse through international conferences sponsored by the United Nations. Theoretical Framework: The main concepts and theories that underlie the research are in the works Archeology of Knowledge and Order of Discourse, by Michel Foucault. Method: The Foucault archaeological method and documentary research are adopted. The corpus of the survey of official, unofficial and civil society documents is situated within the framework of the Stockholm-72 and Rio-92 conferences. Results and Discussion: The critical analysis of the documents points in particular to the clash of political, economic and social forces around concepts such as eco-development and sustainable development. It concludes by pointing out that, although the environmental discourse has become institutionalized at government level, these concepts were aimed first and foremost at producing a global consensus. Research Implications: The research contributes to the understanding of contemporary environmental challenges. Originality/Value: The study proposes a Foucauldian approach to evaluating environmental discourse.