PLANNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE EUROPE? - TU Berlin

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4.1 Introduction
In the previous chapter, I defined a “discursive framework” as a theoretical
approach consisting of an ensemble of underlying rationales and concepts that together
form the intellectual backdrop for a set of policy responses and actions relating to a
particular topic. Table 3.1 already provided an overview of the five identified discursive
frameworks for sustainable policy-making, summarizing their overarching themes, their
main unit of analysis and their main relevance for policy action. In this chapter, I
elaborate on these five identified discursive frameworks and show how they are relevant
for transport planning and policy-making in Europe. The explicit aim here is to not only
elaborate on the dominant discursive framework of the European Union (and particularly
of its Commission), namely ecological modernization, but to instead also make an effort
to better contextualize this framework by clearly delineating it from complementary and
alternative discursive frameworks which also make important contributions to the
ongoing interdisciplinary debates on sustainability and sustainable development, both at
the academic and at the professional level. Put in very simple terms, much of the
disagreement between EU Commission staff at the Transport Directorate and sustainable
transport advocacy NGOs over investment preferences, for example, can be explained by
the fact that the two stakeholder groups operate within two fundamentally different
discursive frameworks. One emphasizes growth, while the other stresses environmental
sustainability and equity.
While my typology of discursive frameworks is unlikely to present exhaustive
coverage of the full range and diversity of writings on the subject of sustainable
(transport) planning and policy-making, it nevertheless aims to categorize major trends