AbstractsPolitical Science

Discursively Constructing Green Growth: The role of OECD in Denmark's green economy

by Troels Tibert Larsen




Institution: Roskilde University
Department:
Year: 2015
Keywords: Global Political Economy, Green Growth, Environmental politics, Discourse Theory, the OECD, Sustainable Development
Record ID: 1120341
Full text PDF: http://rudar.ruc.dk/handle/1800/19293


Abstract

This project wish to contribute to both the understanding of the OECD's influence on the Danish green growth agenda, and the discourses embedded in the development of the global green economy. I argue that these are important topics as they contribute to a greater understanding of the [global] processes that influence national policy-making [Denmark] when developing fossil-free economies. In this context it is important to understand the meaning that are constructed by embedded discourses, as they are influencing communities of policy-practitioners, who is actively shaping the future of the global economy, and the fate of our Earth. I will study these issues by combining post-structural theory on green growth discourses, with theory explaining how the OECD construct and diffuse political and economic discourses to harmonize transnational polity. I will draw upon studies by Michael Jacobs (2012) and Peter Fergunson (2014) when explaining the discourses currently articulating on the global political landscape, and combine this with Martin Marcussen theory of the 'idea game' (2007), and organisational discourse theory(OD). Jörg Dostal's conceptualization of the OECD's four core OD features will then be explained and integrated into an analytic toolbox for discourse analysis developed by Marianne Jørgensen and Louise Phillips (2002). This will allow the project to depict the discursive struggle over meaning, while accounting for how the organisation seek to influence Danish policy-making. What follows hereafter is an analysis, and comparison, of the OECD's and Denmark's discursive construction of green growth, and the political and economic means they utilize, during 2009-2012. The findings will reveal that the OECD and Denmark construct similar discourses around green growth, and that the Danish government endorsed most of the policies recommended by the OECD. It is, however, impossible to determine how strong the causal link is between the organisation and Danish policy-making. But it is concluded that the OECD utilizes its OD to influence the Danish process, and that they, albeit to a modest extend, influence the perception of Danish policy-makers, who actively refer to the organisation as they reform Denmark towards green growth and sustainable development.