(2013) Analysing the Rospuda River controversy in Poland: rhetoric, environmental activism, and the influence of the European Union (original) (raw)
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East European Politics, 2013
The paper looks at the case of a large and widely publicised environmental controversy in Poland, and asks why the authorities chose the "pro-environmental" option in the end. Taking into account the wider political and social context of the controversy, we also try to show what the role of the European Union (EU) was in that conflict. We adopt a rhetorical approach to show the discursive struggle around the environmental protection norms, as well as the idea of participation. We engage in a theoretical discussion with constructivist research on normative change, arguing for the need to take domestic agency, as well as local ideational structures, into account while also questioning the usefulness of the concept of "socialisation" and the notion of "norm diffusion" in the debate on Europeanisation. Instead, normative change could be perceived as the empowerment and legitimisation of certain norms and values at the cost of a relative de-legitimisation of others. The EU, apart from its legal impact, can be seen as an important reference point, both as a source of powerful discourses and of legitimacy, while the agency is mostly on the domestic side. We contend, however, that such normative shifts are very context dependent and unstable.
papers.ssrn.com
Are environmental norms uniform in the EU and if yes – how does that happen? This article demonstrates the process through which norms are transnationally enforced in Europe. It also engages in a theoretical discussion with constructivist research on normative change, arguing for the need to take domestic agency, as well as local ideational structures, into account while also questioning the usefulness of the concept of “socialization” and the notion of “norm diffusion” in the debate on Europeanization. Instead, normative change could be perceived as the empowerment of certain norms and values at the cost of others. A four stage model of norm empowerment is developed, utilizing the mechanism of rhetorical coercion, and tested on the case of a recent environmental controversy over the preservation of the Rospuda river valley in Poland. It is argued that normative change on the level of domestic discourses can be observed and analyzed parallel to the rhetorical practices of societal actors. Mobilization and contestation thus resembles electoral campaigns, and framing, rhetorical coercion as well as entrapment are the most important mechanisms in play, while the EU can be seen as a stabilizer of the normative “status quo” which is the result of the conflict.
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2010
Are environmental norms uniform in the EU and if yes-how does that happen? This article demonstrates the process through which norms are transnationally enforced in Europe. It also engages in a theoretical discussion with constructivist research on normative change, arguing for the need to take domestic agency, as well as local ideational structures, into account while also questioning the usefulness of the concept of "socialization" and the notion of "norm diffusion" in the debate on Europeanization. Instead, normative change could be perceived as the empowerment of certain norms and values at the cost of others. A four stage model of norm empowerment is developed, utilizing the mechanism of rhetorical coercion, and tested on the case of a recent environmental controversy over the preservation of the Rospuda river valley in Poland. It is argued that normative change on the level of domestic discourses can be observed and analyzed parallel to the rhetorical practices of societal actors. Mobilization and contestation thus resembles electoral campaigns, and framing, rhetorical coercion as well as entrapment are the most important mechanisms in play, while the EU can be seen as a stabilizer of the normative "status quo" which is the result of the conflict.
Polish Environmental Movement 1980-2017: (De)Legitimization, Politics & Ecological Crises
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2017
Why has the Polish government decided to give in to environmental protesters in the widely publicised case of the Rospuda River (2006-2007) but choses to ignore both EU pressure and domestic activism the ongoing protests against the logging of the Białowieża forest? It is difficult to understand the difference without an in-depth analysis of domestic political conditions and ways in which external stimuli and global processes are accommodated. That is why in this paper we go quite far back in history, to trace the roots, emergence and evolution of Polish political environmentalism-not restricted to protest groups, social movements, or green parties, but covering all forms of political engagement in the name of environmental protection. The paper begins with a brief reconstruction of the ideational and socio-political evolution of environmentalism in Poland, and the history of the rise and fall of the mass environmental protest movement between 1985 and 1990. The analysis that follows traces three levels of the movement's legitimacy: on the level of practices, breadth and discourse. Our analysis is structured chronologically, dividing the period until 2017 into historically significant phases. Each phase sees shifts on different levels of legitimacy, and each ends with a spectacular environmental protest or a decision linked to it:
(2017) Polish Environmental Move-ment 1980-2017: (De)legitimization, Politics & Ecological Crises
Why has the Polish government decided to give in to environmental protesters in the widely publicised case of the Rospuda River (2006-2007) but choses to ignore both EU pressure and domestic activism the ongoing protests against the logging of the Białowieża forest? It is difficult to understand the difference without an in-depth analysis of domestic political conditions and ways in which external stimuli and global processes are accommodated. That is why in this paper we go quite far back in history, to trace the roots, emergence and evolution of Polish political environmentalism – not restricted to protest groups, social movements, or green parties, but covering all forms of political engagement in the name of environmental protection. The paper begins with a brief reconstruction of the ideational and socio-political evolution of environmentalism in Po-land, and the history of the rise and fall of the mass environmental protest movement between 1985 and 1990. The analysis that follows traces three levels of the movement’s legitimacy: on the level of practices, breadth and discourse. Our analysis is structured chronologically, dividing the period until 2017 into histori-cally significant phases. Each phase sees shifts on different levels of legitimacy, and each ends with a spec-tacular environmental protest or a decision linked to it: Żarnowiec in 1989, Czorsztyn in 1992, Mount St. Anne in 1998, Rospuda in 2007 and the ongoing campaigns around the issues of nuclear energy, smog and the Białowieża Forest. The results of these most spectacular and remembered protests had implications for the following phase, the trajectory of the movement or were a kind of litmus test for the legitimacy of political environmental protest at those points in time.
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The content of the environmental discourse that took place in Lithuania from 1989 to 2005 is analyzed in this article. Discourse content is disclosed through identification and description of discourse coalitions and main story-lines that penetrate the discourse texts. The environmental discourse is not analyzed merely as a reflection of environmental worldviews, or as a reflection of socially acceptable norms of environment related behaviour, which dominate the collective consciousness of society. The article also analyzes the latent meanings embedded in the texts that signify social order expectations and social configurations of power defended by the discourse participants. The article is grounded on empirical results obtained as part of the author's doctoral research project. Data collected is pieces of texts from environmental periodicals.
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Over the last three decades, ecological modernisation (EM) has emerged as a powerful political discourse, in which economic growth, environmental protection and energy security are mutually reinforcing. Here, the trajectory of EM in the European Union is traced, using a discourse analysis of the seven Environmental Action Programmes. The discourse articulated in these documents points towards an encroaching ‘double depoliticisation’. First, political decisions are discursively constructed as a matter of market rationality rather than a democratic process that engages with different political positions. Second, EM is reified as the only feasible solution, and alternative and contesting discourses are marginalised. Thus not only are political differences erased from the discourse, but the discourse is itself removed from political debate.
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Green New Deals is a relatively new phenomenon in environmental policy which takes a holistic approach and aims to bridge ecological sustainability and social justice. In 2019, the European Union became the first major economy to adopt and implement such a policy agenda. While being praised as Europe’s ‘man on the moon’-moment, critical scholars have indicated that it may reinforce the depoliticized framing of the socio-environmental problematique as technical and external, ultimately sustaining status quo power structures. Drawing on Poststructuralist Discourse Theory and Logics of Critical Explanation and human geography scholarship on depoliticization, this thesis aims to, through a discourse analysis, explain and potentially criticize (de)politicization dynamics present in the European Green Deal and how it shapes the debate on societal transformation and what constructions of futures are possible. The findings of this thesis show how the European Green Deal indeed frames the so...