Conflict cultures – Qualitative Comparative Analysis of environmental conflicts in forestry

Owing to the internationalisation of the forestry debate and forest policy, there is growing need to conduct comparative forest policy research at an international scale. This research compares environmental confl icts in forestry in seven cases during 1984–1995. The cases include Finland, France, Minnesota USA, Norway, Pacifi c Northwest USA, Sweden and West Germany. The research is based on the notion that each society has its own ‘cultural’ ways of producing and managing environmental confl icts in forestry, depending on the social, political, economic, and resource characteristics of the society. The purpose of the study is to describe these confl ict cultures, to identify and analyse the societal aspects that impact them, and to discuss the implications of understanding confl icts as cultural phenomena. The research is based on focused interviews of multiple actors related to forest management and protection. For the data analysis, a ‘hermeneutic’ (interpretative and understanding) approach is introduced to Qualitative Comparative Analysis, the use of which has been dominated by causal applications. As a result of the analysis, models of confl ict cultures and confl ict management strategies are constructed. The model of confl ict cultures indicates three basic dimensions of confl ict culture, and defi nes how they are related to each other. These dimensions are mild vs. intense confl icts, separatist vs. co-operative relations between actors and stability vs. change in forest resource policy and use. The model of confl ict management strategies indicates to what extent the different cases place emphasis on interactive vs. institutional confl ict management, and the management of confl icting (sub)cultures within the society vs. the confl ict culture of the society.