Our common, contested future: the rhetorics of modern environment in Sweden
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Date
25/11/2015Author
Hinde, Dominic Matthew
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Abstract
This thesis explores the creation and resolution of environmental conflicts in modern
Sweden from a narrative ethics perspective. By problematising the concept of Swedish
exceptionalism in environmental questions, it allows for a multi-disciplinary reappraisal
of Sweden’s international reputation as a nominally ‘green’ nation. This emphasises the
dissonance between perceptions of a self-identifying green nation and idea of a
sustainable modern green state which is structured in a sustainable way. In so doing, the
thesis asserts the pluralistic approach to the ethics and moral identities of modernity
pioneered by the Scottish political and moral philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre as a means
of understanding the diverse and often contradictory nature of Sweden’s environmental
performance. The main source material for this investigation is a corpus of circa 1000
texts in four major newspapers, taken from debates surrounding three environmental
conflicts between 1970 and 2010. These conflicts are the 1970 campaign to save the
Vindel River from development, the 1980 referendum on nuclear energy in Sweden and
the role played by the proposed Stockholm Bypass road project in the 2010 municipal
and national elections. Chosen to cover variation in location, size and time period, they
yield a substantial sample in relation to the discussion and resolution of environmental
conflict. These texts are listed in full in Appendix II.
Utilising the theory of textual selves presented in the analytical discourse methodology of
Norman Fairclough and the reflexive nature of self-identity within modern narrative,
these entries are then coded. This coding uses the concept of a textual ethos developed
within Fairclough’s Text Oriented Discourse Analysis (TODA) methodology. From this
large corpus, thirteen specific examples reflecting these quantitative labels are more
closely analysed using TODA. This pays attention to both their composition and to the
wider context of the debates from which they are taken.
In the detailed analyses that follow, the conflicts and their characteristics are viewed
through the concept of modern non-rational doxa. This entails argumentation being based
on temporally specific contexts and narratives over epistemologically coherent
rationalism. Parallels are drawn between larger societal meta-narratives and values and
the argumentation for specific choices about the future made by individual authors, and it
is argued that the continued fragmentation of Swedish politics has implications for
understanding the concept of norms and the hegemony of ideologies or ethical
standpoints. Discussing the impact of such a situation on Sweden’s future development
and the potential for export of Swedish environmental practice, this study ultimately
posits that any attempt to replicate Swedish environmental practice must come to terms
with the narrative context in which action is to take place. Finally, it speculates on the
challenges of writing and arguing for truly sustainable eco-modernities.