To Örebro University

The governance trend toward decentralization, which implies transfer of responsibility to market actors to voluntarily respond to socio-environmental issues, is evident in forest policy. Parallel to this trend, mandatory environmental legislation circumscribes forest owners’ scope of action. Drawing on the example of Sweden and based on qualitative interviews, this study examined how non-industrial private forest owners understand and construct their responsibility for multiple forest values in an ambiguous policy situation. By juxtaposition of the concepts of governmentality and discursive negotiation of responsibility, the study contributes insights into not only how people are governed but also how they express dissent or resistance. The results of this study clearly elucidate that individuals are never fully controlled by discourse and that responsibilization of individual forest owners cannot guarantee a certain outcome. Additionally, the study contributes some insights into the predicament of being simultaneously addressed as an autonomous, capable actor and subject to direction and mandatory rules.