Das Waldsterben in der Informationsgesellschaft : zur Anwendung der sprachpragmatischen Handlungstheorie in Sozialgeographie und Humanökologie

Abstract. Since the eighties action theory and theory of structuration have increasingly been accepted as basic conceptual frameworks for social geography. This article contnbutes to this debate by demonstrating the potential of a certain variant of action theory (see ZIERHOFER 1997) for empirical re search. First the author sets out in detail how this "language pragmatics approach" has been applied in a research pro ject on the processing of "Waldsterben" (forest decline, litterally: dying forest) in science and mass media (ZIERHOFER 1998). He shows in particular in what ways the empirical ana lysis is guided by a specific reference to the normative di mension of interactions, and he discusses the possibilities of a critical social science that are provided by such an approach. Finally,he argues that particularly in the first few years of the debate on "Waldsterben" neither forestry science nor mass media met those Standards of critical-reflexive processing of informations that guarantee the political sovereignity of Citizens.