ABSTRACT

It is widely acknowledged that policies for a more sustainable society require narratives outside the status quo. This contribution studies the EU’s environmental policy narrative of a circular economy (CE), which many consider promising in this respect. The results demonstrate that the CE narrative was created to transform EU policy discourses ‘from within’ but eventually perpetuated the established discourse of ecological modernization. This perpetuation resulted from specific strategic practices used to create the CE narrative, which (1) concealed conflict, (2) strengthened the agency of incumbents, and (3) excluded alternative voices. The analysis uses empirical evidence from 28 interviews with key stakeholders, 84 policy documents and participant observation data at the European Union (EU) level. The results suggest that the development of narratives outside the status quo depends on strategic practices that address (future) conflicts and offer new agency to change agents as well as transition strategies to incumbents.

摘要

人们普遍承认，实现更可持续社会的政策需要超越现状的叙述。这篇文章研究了欧盟循环经济 (CE) 的环境政策叙述，许多人认为这在这方面很有希望。结果表明，创建 CE 叙事是为了“从内部”转变欧盟政策话语，但最终使生态现代化的既定话语永久化。这种延续源于用于创建 CE 叙事的特定战略实践，它 (1) 隐藏了冲突，(2) 加强了现任者的能动性，以及 (3) 排除了其他声音。该分析使用来自对关键利益相关者的 28 次访谈、84 份政策文件和欧盟 (EU) 层面的参与者观察数据的经验证据。