TY - JOUR
T1 - Forestry in transition
T2 - Imperial legacy and negotiated expertise in Romania and Poland
AU - Lawrence, Anna
N1 - Article produced while at University of Oxford; full text available from https://ora.ox.ac.uk/
PY - 2009/10/1
Y1 - 2009/10/1
N2 - The expertise of foresters has until recently been relatively uncontested in central and eastern European forest management, but political, economic and social changes are now challenging that, and create opportunities for understanding the relationship between expertise and context. Emphasising both the characteristics that central and eastern European countries have in common, and ways in which they differ, the paper outlines broad changes in forestry policy and practice in the region. It then explores constructions of foresters' identity, role and legitimacy, and the influence of context on their status as experts. The paper focuses on Romania and Poland, drawing on extended interviews, field observation and documentary analysis. Because forestry is tied into histories of power and institutional culture as well as science and political rationalisation, the evolution of forestry knowledge offers insights for wider debates about 'expertise' as a socially constructed alternative to lay knowledge. Foresters acquire expertise, both as it is conferred upon them (by law and education), and through their own authority (gained through experience, and the acting out of an emotional commitment to the forest). Post-socialist forestry offers rich potential for extending our understanding of contingency and subjectivity within the wider projects of empire and modernity. Crown
AB - The expertise of foresters has until recently been relatively uncontested in central and eastern European forest management, but political, economic and social changes are now challenging that, and create opportunities for understanding the relationship between expertise and context. Emphasising both the characteristics that central and eastern European countries have in common, and ways in which they differ, the paper outlines broad changes in forestry policy and practice in the region. It then explores constructions of foresters' identity, role and legitimacy, and the influence of context on their status as experts. The paper focuses on Romania and Poland, drawing on extended interviews, field observation and documentary analysis. Because forestry is tied into histories of power and institutional culture as well as science and political rationalisation, the evolution of forestry knowledge offers insights for wider debates about 'expertise' as a socially constructed alternative to lay knowledge. Foresters acquire expertise, both as it is conferred upon them (by law and education), and through their own authority (gained through experience, and the acting out of an emotional commitment to the forest). Post-socialist forestry offers rich potential for extending our understanding of contingency and subjectivity within the wider projects of empire and modernity. Crown
KW - Expertise
KW - Forest governance
KW - Historical geographies
KW - Institutional culture
KW - Poland
KW - Post-socialism
KW - Romania
KW - Sustainable forest management
KW - Technical norms
KW - Technocracy
KW - Transition economies
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=71749084086&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=71749084086&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.forpol.2009.02.003
DO - 10.1016/j.forpol.2009.02.003
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:71749084086
SN - 1389-9341
VL - 11
SP - 429
EP - 436
JO - Forest Policy and Economics
JF - Forest Policy and Economics
IS - 5-6
ER -