PLANNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE EUROPE? - TU Berlin

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Chapter 6 departed from the more text-oriented discourse analysis in Chapter 5
and took a more thematic approach. Three overarching guiding visions (Leitbilder) used
in EU decision-making were identified: On one hand, the EU is always torn between the
twin forces of “integration” (deepening) and “expansion” (widening). On the other hand,
the new mandate of “sustainability” has brought an additional dimension to EU decisionmaking.
None of these three general Leitbilder are specific enough to generate detailed
policies and plans in the transport sector. Yet there are in fact several different
identifiable sub-discourses influencing EU transport infrastructure investment rationales.
In analyzing these sub-discourses, I reverted to a discourse analytical concept used by
Maarten Hajer in his own 1995 study on ecological modernization and the policy process,
namely the concept of “storylines.” Put very simply, storylines are generative narratives
that give meaning to specific physical or social phenomena, and they can induce political
change and reorder understandings. Most importantly, “finding the appropriate storyline
becomes an important form of agency” (Hajer 1996:56). I adapted this concept to the
particular case of EU transport infrastructure decision-making, and identified four
different “spatial storylines” justifying EU transport infrastructure investments in the
1990s: “cohesion,” “polycentricity,” “missing links,” and “bottlenecks.” I showed how
these different storylines cluster knowledge, position different stakeholders and,
ultimately, create different coalitions for decision-making. The “cohesion” and
“polycentricity” storylines are partially complementary and mutually reinforcing, as are
the “missing links” and “bottlenecks” storylines. Yet the two pairs
“cohesion/polycentricity” and “missing links/bottlenecks” end up privileging almost
opposite types of investments. Meanwhile, the “cohesion” and “polycentricity”