Differences and Interlinks of Poverty and Environmental Sustainability in the EU Agenda 2020: A Discourse Analysis
Tscherteu, Magdalena (2023)
2023
Yhteiskuntatieteiden tiedekunta - Faculty of Social Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2023-05-18
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202304203976
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202304203976
Tiivistelmä
Pivotal international treaties and agendas repeatedly cover both, ecological and social policies (Howes et al., 2017). The European Union as a critical supranational agency has solved pressing social issues with the help of its developed welfare states (Threlfall, 2009), becoming a global best practice for social questions, whereas it has not managed to find an adequate response to pressing environmental questions. This is critical as, according to von Lucke et al. (2021), the EU potentially “shape[s] conceptions of the normal” for global policymaking (Manners, 2002, as cited in von Lucke et al., 2021, p. 4). Consequently, agendas set in the EU and their predicating discourse determine processes far beyond the European borders (Bowden, 2021).
To target this inbalance in the current discourse, I chose to conduct a discourse analysis on the interlinks and differneces of poverty and environmental sustainability in the EU Agenda 2020. I follow the recommendations of Jäger (2001) to conduct the analysis in two steps. He recommends to first perform a structural analysis, to gain insights into the arrangement and position of issues in the text and into the involvement of societal sectors. Then he suggests continuing with a more detailed in-depth analysis on selected part of the documents which appear most relevant for the discourse in question.
The results show that the discourse relates poverty and environmental sustainability by strengthening employment in the EU. While economic benefits legitimise sustainable technologies, employment opportunities are the claimed solution for poverty. As a result, the agenda suggests the expansion of sustainable technologies and innovation to revive the labour market and employ a larger part of the population in it. In addition, social protection systems flourish in member states due to the raise of the employment rate. These findings additionally reveal that while the discourse incorporates environmental sustainability in diverse business arenas as a side effect of economic growth, it claims credibility to social protection systems and provides fewer economic justifications.
Another core finding of the paper is unchallenged concepts in the discourse addressing the relation between poverty and environmental sustainability. The agenda does not elaborate, define or justify concepts of growth and employment. Moreover, the EU Agenda 2020 frames the role of the EU within the global community in a competitive way, omitting notions of global responsibility (von Lucke, 2021).
Through discourse analysis, it uncovered unchallenged concepts which are installed as “common sense” in societal practices (Marttila, 2019). Several discourse strands are employed in the document, merging into one discourse covering the relation between and difference in concepts of poverty and environmental sustainability. The linkage of the issues in the document happens by positioning employment as an intermediate tool to connect sustainable technologies and the rise of the employment rate, as both the structural and the in-depth analysis uncovered. It also finds two prominent but unchallenged concepts: economic growth and employment.
To target this inbalance in the current discourse, I chose to conduct a discourse analysis on the interlinks and differneces of poverty and environmental sustainability in the EU Agenda 2020. I follow the recommendations of Jäger (2001) to conduct the analysis in two steps. He recommends to first perform a structural analysis, to gain insights into the arrangement and position of issues in the text and into the involvement of societal sectors. Then he suggests continuing with a more detailed in-depth analysis on selected part of the documents which appear most relevant for the discourse in question.
The results show that the discourse relates poverty and environmental sustainability by strengthening employment in the EU. While economic benefits legitimise sustainable technologies, employment opportunities are the claimed solution for poverty. As a result, the agenda suggests the expansion of sustainable technologies and innovation to revive the labour market and employ a larger part of the population in it. In addition, social protection systems flourish in member states due to the raise of the employment rate. These findings additionally reveal that while the discourse incorporates environmental sustainability in diverse business arenas as a side effect of economic growth, it claims credibility to social protection systems and provides fewer economic justifications.
Another core finding of the paper is unchallenged concepts in the discourse addressing the relation between poverty and environmental sustainability. The agenda does not elaborate, define or justify concepts of growth and employment. Moreover, the EU Agenda 2020 frames the role of the EU within the global community in a competitive way, omitting notions of global responsibility (von Lucke, 2021).
Through discourse analysis, it uncovered unchallenged concepts which are installed as “common sense” in societal practices (Marttila, 2019). Several discourse strands are employed in the document, merging into one discourse covering the relation between and difference in concepts of poverty and environmental sustainability. The linkage of the issues in the document happens by positioning employment as an intermediate tool to connect sustainable technologies and the rise of the employment rate, as both the structural and the in-depth analysis uncovered. It also finds two prominent but unchallenged concepts: economic growth and employment.