Understanding the contradictory perceptions on the new EU Forest Strategy for 2030 through theories of sense making and meaning making

It has been clear for decades that climate change will lead to devastating consequences, and how these challenges should be addressed is being discussed on all levels of society. One example is the new EU Forest Strategy for 2030 which is a part of the European Union’s work to cope with the climate crisis. However, many of today’s transboundary and creeping crises are subject to challenges when agreeing on common strategies forward, such as the climate crisis. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how the theories of sense making and meaning making can help in better understanding these challenges. By studying the disagreements between four Swedish actors and the European Commission on the new EU forest strategy for 2030, this thesis demonstrates a practical example of the challenges to address, in a coordinated fashion, climate change. The research is based on a case study approach with the theoretical framework including sense making and meaning making. The theoretical background is complemented by qualitative content analysis and qualitative semi-structured interviews. The results show that the perspectives from sense making and meaning making help better understand the difficulties in agreeing on common strategies to cope with the climate crisis, with the new EU Forest Strategy for 2030 as the example.