PLANNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE EUROPE? - TU Berlin

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course, also scholars propagating a “postmodern Marxism” (see e.g. Gibson-Graham,
Resnick et al. 2001) as well as many other political-economy scholars which consciously
root themselves within the postmodern tradition. This explains why the columns “promodern”
and “pro-capitalist” in Table 3.1 are not congruent with each other, and why
some of the fields contain yes/no categorizations.
3.4 The Notion of Discursive Frameworks
3.4.1 Discursive Frameworks vs. Paradigms
Most researchers use the term “paradigm” whenever they wish to connote a
fundamental shift or difference in the way that research and/or policy-making is being
framed. The term was first popularized by Thomas Kuhn in his famous book The
Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1970). 13 In common usage, the term “paradigm” is
now frequently understood to mean “worldview”. Consider the following uses of the
term among many researchers writing on sustainable (transport) development and
environmental policy (all emphases are mine):
The 1987 Brundtland Report “Our Common Future” can be seen as one of the
paradigm statements of ecological modernization.
(Hajer 1995:26)
There seems to be widespread agreement that environmental policy has undergone
substantial changes in the past 10-15 years … Two ‘paradigms’, in particular, have
been used to describe these changes: ecological modernization and sustainable
development. (Langhelle 2000:303)
One of the major efforts of planning theory has been to attempt to define what
planning is, through the development of paradigms of planning thought. However, we
have yet to see a universally accepted paradigm.
(Richardson 1996:10)
13 The first edition of the book was published in 1962, but the 1970 edition is more useful since it contains
an illuminating 1969 post-script from the author in response to theoretical discussions since the original
publication.