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PLANNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE EUROPE? - TU Berlin

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77<br />

Table 3.1 Five Discursive Frameworks for Sustainable Policy-Making<br />

Theoretical<br />

Approach<br />

Overarching<br />

Theme<br />

Unit of<br />

Analysis<br />

Pro-<br />

Modern<br />

?<br />

Pro-<br />

Capitalist?<br />

Key Policy<br />

Relevance<br />

Ecological<br />

Modernization<br />

“Sustainable<br />

Growth”<br />

(Market)<br />

Economy<br />

Yes Yes Proactive,<br />

Competitive<br />

Action<br />

Reflexive<br />

Modernization<br />

“Risk<br />

Rationality”<br />

Society Yes Yes Precautionary<br />

Action<br />

Communicative<br />

Rationality<br />

Rationality<br />

People &<br />

Institutions<br />

Yes Yes /<br />

No<br />

Communicative<br />

Action<br />

Political<br />

Economy<br />

Equity &<br />

Social<br />

Justice<br />

Society &<br />

Space<br />

Yes / No No Re-distributive<br />

Action<br />

Renunciation<br />

Source: Own compilation<br />

Ecological<br />

Balance<br />

Nature Yes / No No Protective<br />

Action<br />

(Eco-centric)<br />

3.2 From Three Definitions of Sustainability to Five Discursive Frameworks<br />

For many advocates of the sustainability concept, my distinction of five different<br />

discursive frameworks – with ecological modernization being the dominant one in EU<br />

policy-making – might seem somewhat counter-intuitive. Conventionally, sustainability<br />

scholars argue that the three-dimensional nature of sustainable development presented in<br />

Chapter 2 (“efficiency” – “environment” – “equity”) can be ascribed to the fact that the<br />

level theoretical constructs located somewhere between Kuhn’s “paradigms” and Sabatier’s “policy theory<br />

frameworks,” and with a much greater affinity towards the former.

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