Are decarbonisation transitions deliberately accelerated? The European Commission and the making of EU mobility policy.

Priebe, Christoph (2022) Are decarbonisation transitions deliberately accelerated? The European Commission and the making of EU mobility policy. Masters thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

Transition scholars have studied the deliberate acceleration of transitions by public authorities, as well as shallower and deeper incumbency associated with public authorities impeding the acceleration. They have considered acceleration through policy mixes for transitions, impeded by transition conflicts and the use of strategies by actors (addressed in the literature through the integration of transition studies and policy studies) as well as impeded by structures emerging from the micro-politics of transition processes. Existing research has mostly addressed those different acceleration aspects separately. This thesis then responds to the literature’s precautionary call to address those different aspects together. It does so by applying a policy studies-based theoretical framework – with a Narrative Policy Framework basis, complemented by elements from discursive institutionalism and ‘policy work theory’ – to a transition case study.

The thesis explores the deliberate acceleration of the (urban people) mobility decarbonisation transition by the European Commission. It focuses on the making of the Commission’s 2011 Transport White Paper, the EU’s last ten-year policy strategy (2011 to 2020) regarding mobility. It analyses this process using content analysis of the relevant documents, with subsequent qualitative data analysis through process tracing.

The thesis found that the policy outcome (the 2011 Transport White Paper) showed an encompassing, but not balanced policy instrument mix for transitions. It found a ‘tentative’ instrument mix encompassing mostly ‘traditional’ environmental economics-based solutions, as well as to a lesser extent ‘novel’ innovation studies-based and social practice theory-based solutions. The deployment of policy narratives was shaped by the policy-making context, and the deployment of narratives influenced the instrument mix. In particular, actors and/or coalitions putting forward novel solutions used a ‘fit and conform’ strategy as regards the substantiation of solutions, especially in the context corresponding, later on in the process, to the ‘traditional’ authoritative choice and structured interaction policy work accounts. Yet, there was also a noteworthy exception to this: actors and/or coalitions putting forward novel solutions used a ‘stretch and transform’ strategy as regards the substantiation of solutions, in the context unequivocally corresponding to the ‘novel’ social construction policy work accounts.

The thesis ultimately assessed the interplay of deliberate acceleration and incumbencies. Such an assessment should ultimately allow moving beyond the precautionary argument for considering the different deliberate acceleration aspects, towards assessing their relative importance.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
Depositing User:	Chris White
Date Deposited:	20 Apr 2023 13:56
Last Modified:	20 Apr 2023 13:56
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/91849
DOI:

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