PLANNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE EUROPE? - TU Berlin

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communities and related concepts. 21
In my view, the major failing of the epistemic
communities literature is that epistemic communities are envisioned to be rational actors
limiting themselves to persuasion and foregoing other means of influence. As Zito
(2001:588) has it: “The epistemic community should persuade EU actors to conform to
its consensual (i.e. intersubjectively constructed) ideas without recourse to more material
form of power.” By contrast, my case study of EU transport decision-making finds
power and material practices to be much more influential than rational arguments in
many instances. Put somewhat differently: My argument is based on the insight that
ideas are shaped by power, and that “power defines reality” (Flyvbjerg 1998).
21 A more realist concept that is also used by neo-functionalists is “entrepreneurship.” An entrepreneur is
defined as “an actor or organization that advocates a policy and invests resources in promoting a position in
return for some benefit” (Kingdon 1984, as quoted in Zito 2001:586). Consequently, entrepreneurship
scholars are concerned with agenda-setting, support building, and deal brokering. According to the neofunctionalist
strand of this literature, the Commission itself is an entrepreneur who has influenced and
actively advanced European Integration (Sandholz and Zysman 1989; Cram 1997).