PERCEPTIONS OF POWER AND THE MANAGEMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONFLICT - FOREST POLITICS IN BRITISH-COLUMBIA

Political actors' perceptions of the contexts in which they act influe nce their strategies and behavior. A key element of political contexts is the configuration of power with respect to a conflict. We intervie wed 28 individuals involved in British Columbia forest politics to det ermine their perceptions of the configuration of power, the nature of their political behavior, their dispositions with respect to instituti onalized conflict resolution processes, and their policy goals. Our an alysis generated two sets of conclusions. First, the B.C. government's efforts to address forest conflict will be hindered by the inconsiste ncy between the conflict management strategy they have chosen and the mental models of politics held by key political actors. Second, the su bjective realities of political actors can be used to explain variatio n in political behavior.