Studies investigating forest discourses both from within and outside the forest discourse community have seen a growing interest in how forest policies and their governance affect forest communities, the people, and the countries. There has been a debate on whether these studies, which claimed to be studied following Foucault’s concepts of discourse, power, knowledge and governmentality have contributed to deriving empirical findings on how forest discourses have impacted and affected those involved in the implementation of the discourses. More recently, the importance of investigating the needs of forestry communities in terms of understanding how forest information is used, by whom and for what purpose have been of significant value for forest sustainability. To date, little is known about those involved in forest discourses, what functions the discourses serve to those involved, and their impact on the forest community in general. This study adopted a document analysis approach to review previous research published related to forestry discourse studies from discourse and linguistic perspectives. Findings from the review suggest that studies investigating forest discourses thus far lacked sound theoretical and analytical methods of analysing forest discourses, requiring a more critical and empirical evidences concerning essential components within the forest-related discourse that makes them an integral part of understanding the nature and practices of forest governance. Consequently, this paper provides relevant details on the concepts of discourse from a Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) perspective, an approach that is viewed as particularly useful as a theory and analytical framework to uncover how language is used within its context to serve its communicative purpose. The paper concludes with the possible inclusion of another possible direction for further studies in forest discourses, particularly from a linguistic perspective on forest discourses concerning forest policies and governance.
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In-Text Citation: (Fakhruddin, 2022)
To Cite this Article: Fakhruddin, W. F. W. W. (2022). A Review on Directions for Discussing Forest Governance and Discourses from a Linguistic Perspective. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences. 12(6), 367– 377.
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