ABSTRACT
This chapter explains some relevant essentials of cultural theory as applied to politics. It shows how an optimistic view of outcomes of environmental policy can emerge, and arguably is emerging, through modernisation of environmental technologies. The chapter sets out a general description and analysis of the role and criticisms of cultural theory. Cultural theory avoids the need of producing accounts of different cultures which are difficult to compare. The principal cultural theorists linked the cultural frames with particular views of nature and approaches to analysing environmental problems. Some of the most trenchant criticisms of cultural theory fly right past the main justifications for its use. Brendon Swedlow argues that: cultural theorists do not distinguish culture from institutions but rather distinguish cultural bias from institutions. The potential usefulness of cultural theory in analysing low carbon politics is underscored by the fact that key, seminal, applications of cultural theory have involved environmental policy and energy policy.
