Cover not available
Article published In:
Discourse analysis, policy analysis, and the borders of EU identity
Edited by Caterina Carta and Ruth Wodak
[Journal of Language and Politics 14:1] 2015
► pp. 110–133

International leadership re-/constructed?

Ambivalence and heterogeneity of identity discourses in European Union’s policy on climate change

| Örebro University |

This article analyses European Union policy discourses on climate change from the point of view of constructions of identity. Articulated in a variety of policy-related genres, the EU rhetoric on climate change is approached as example of the Union’s international discourse, which, contrary to other areas of EU policy-making, relies strongly on discursive frameworks of international and global politics of climate change. As the article shows, the EU’s peculiar international – or even global – leadership in tackling the climate change is constructed in an ambivalent and highly heterogeneous discourse that runs along several vectors. While it on the one hand follows the more recent, inward-looking constructions of Europe known from the EU policy and political discourses of the 1990s and 2000s, it also revives some of the older discursive logics of international competition known from the earlier stages of the European integration. In the analysis, the article draws on the methodological apparatus of the Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) in Critical Discourse Studies. Furthering the DHA studies of EU policy and political discourses, the article emphasises the viability of the discourse-historical methodology applied in the combined analysis of EU identity and policy discourses.

Keywords: European Union, identity, policy, policy communication, climate change, discourse-historical analysis
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Identity And Policy Frames In European Political Discourses
  • 3.European Union Policy On Climate Change
  • 4.Imagining The Eu Identity Through The Policy Discourse On Climate Change: Analysis
    • 4.1Contextualisation and description of the empirical material
    • 4.2Methodology
    • 4.3Key topics of the analysed EUCC policy texts
    • 4.4In-depth analysis of selected strands of the EUCC discourse
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 26 May 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.14.1.06krz
References
Armstrong, Kenneth, Iain Begg, and Jonathen Zeitlin
2008 “Is there a Convincing Rationale for the Lisbon Strategy?” Journal of Common Market Studies 46 (2): 427–435. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Berglez, Peter, and Ulrika Olausson
2010 The “Climate Threat” as Ideology: Interrelations between Citizen and Media Discourses. Paper presented at the conference “Communicating Climate Change II – Global Goes Regional”, 11–12 October 2010, Hamburg, Germany.Google Scholar
Bernstein, Basil
1990 The Structuring of Pedagogic Discourse. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Biedenkopf, Kurt, Bronisław Geremek, and Krzysztof Michalski
2004 The Spiritual and Cultural Dimension of Europe. Reflection Group – Concluding Remarks. Brussels: The European Commission.Google Scholar
Bodansky, Daniel
2010 “The Copenhagen Climate Change Conference: A Postmortem.” The American Journal of International Law 104 (2): 230–240. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Boykoff, Maxwell T
2008 “The Cultural Politics of Climate Change Discourse in UK Tabloids.” Political Geography 271: 549–569. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Carvalho, Anabela
2005 “Representing the Politics of the Greenhouse Effect: Discursive Strategies in the British Media.” Critical Discourse Studies 2 (1): 1–29. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dion, David-Pascal
2005 “The Lisbon Process: A European Odyssey.” European Journal of Education 40 (3): 295–313. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eriksen, Erik-Oddvar
2009 The Unfinished Democratisation of Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
European Communities
1973 Declaration on European Identity. Bulletin of the European Communities, December 1973, 121: 118–122. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
European Commission
2006 The European Climate Change Programme: EU Action against Climate Change. Brussels: European Communities.Google Scholar
2007a Adapting to climate change in Europe – options for EU action. (Green Paper from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, The European Social Committee, and the Committee of the Regions; COM(2007) 354 final). Brussels: The European Commission.Google Scholar
2007b Combating Climate Change – the EU Leads the Way. Brussels: The European Commission.Google Scholar
2011a A Roadmap for moving to a competitive low carbon economy in 2050. (Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, The European Social Committee, and the Committee of the Regions; COM(2011) 112/4). Brussels: The European Commission.Google Scholar
2011b Climate Change. Brussels: The European Commission. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
European Council
2000 Presidency Conclusions – Lisbon European Council 23–24 March 2000. Brussels: Council of the European Union. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 Presidency Conclusions -European Council 25–26 March 2010. Brussels: Council of the European Union. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fairclough, Norman, and Ruth Wodak
2008 “The Bologna Process and the Knowledge-Based Economy: A Critical Discourse Analysis Approach.” In Education and the Knowledge-Based Economy in Europe, ed. by Bob Jessop, Norman Fairclough, and Ruth Wodak, 109–127. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Featherstone, Kevin, and Claudio M. Radaelli
(Eds) 2003 The Politics of Europeanisation. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Follesdal, Andreas, and Simon Hix
2006 “Why There is a Democratic Deficit in the EU: A Response to Majone and Moravcsik.” Journal of Common Market Studies 44 (3): 533–562. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Helm, David
2008 “Climate-change policy: why has so little been achieved?” Oxford Review of Economic Policy 24 (2): 211–238. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jessop, Bob
2008 “Introduction”. In Education and the Knowledge-Based Economy in Europe, ed. by Bob Jessop, Norman Fairclough, and Ruth Wodak, 1–12. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jones, Hywel Ceri
2005 “Lifelong Learning in the European Union: Whither the Lisbon Strategy?” European Journal of Education 40 (3): 247–260. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Krzyżanowski, Michał
2008 Multilingualism and the Democratic Image of the EU: Perspectives from the European Public Sphere. Paper delivered at the Workshop ‘Bottom-Up Europe’, Salzburg Centre for European Studies, University of Salzburg, 09/05/2008.Google Scholar
2009 “Discourses about Enlarged and Multilingual Europe: Perspectives from German and Polish National Public Spheres.” In Language, Discourse and Identity in Central Europe, ed. by Patrick Stevenson, and Jenny Carl, 23–47. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 The Discursive Construction of European identities: A Multilevel Approach to Discourse and Identity in the Transforming European Union. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
2012 “(Mis) Communicating Europe? On Deficiencies and Challenges in Political and Institutional Communication in the European Union.” In Intercultural Communication Past and Present, ed. by Barbara Kryk-Kastovsky, 185–213. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
2013 “Policy, Policy Communication and Discursive Shifts: Analyzing EU Policy Discourses on Climate Change.” In Analysing New Genres in Political Communication, ed. by Piotr Cap, and Urszula Okulska, 101–135. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Krzyżanowski, Michał, and Florian Oberhuber
2007 (Un)Doing Europe: Discourses and Practices of Negotiating the EU Constitution. Brussels: P.I.E.- Peter Lang. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Krzyżanowski, Michał, and Ruth Wodak
2008 “Theorising and Analysing Social Change in Central and Eastern Europe: The Contribution of Critical Discourse Analysis.” In Discourse and Transformation in Central and Eastern Europe, ed. by Aleksanda Galasińska and Michał Krzyżanowski. 17–40. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 “Hegemonic Multilingualism in/of the EU Institutions: An Inside-Outside Perspective on the European Language Policies and Practices.” In Mehrsprachigkeit aus der Perspektive zweier EU-Projekte: DYLAN Meets LINEE, ed. by Heike Böhringer et al., 115–135. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
2011 “Political Strategies and Language Policies: The ‘Rise and Fall’ of the EU Lisbon Strategy and its Implications for the Union’s Multilingualism Policy.” Language Policy 10 (2): 115–136. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Majone, Giandomenico
1998 “Europe’s “Democratic Deficit”: The Question of Standards.” European Law Journal 4 (1): 5–28. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Muntigl, Peter, Gilbert Weiss, and Ruth Wodak
2000 European Union Discourses on Un/employment. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nicolaїdis, Calypso
2010 “The JCMS Annual Review Lecture – Sustainable Integration: Towards EU 2.0?” Journal of Common Market Studies 48 (Annual Review): 21–54. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Oberthür, Sebastian, and Claire Roche–Kelly
2008 “EU Leadership in International Climate Policy: Achievements and Challenges.” The International Spectator 43 (3): 35–50. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Olausson, Ulrika
2009 “Global Warming – Global Responsibility? Media Frames of Collective Action and Scientific Certainty.” Public Understanding of Science 18 (4): 421–36. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 “Towards a European identity? The News Media and the Case of Climate Change.” European Journal of Communication 25 (2): 138–152. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Olausson, Ulrika, and Peter Berglez
(eds) 2014 Media Research on Climate Change: Where have we been and where are we heading? (Special Issue of Environmental Communication). London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Plantin, Christian
2006 “On Casting Doubt: The Dialectical Aspect of Normative Rules in Argumentation.” In Considering Pragma-Dialectics, ed. by Peter Houtlosser, and Agnès van Rees, 245–257. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Pollak, Johannes
2007 Repräsentation ohne Demokratie. Kollidierende Modi der Repräsentation in der Europäischen Union. Vienna: Springer Verlag. DOI logo_8Google Scholar
Reisigl, Martin, and Ruth Wodak
2001 Discourse and Discrimination. Rhetorics of Racism and Anti-Semitism. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2009 “The Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA).” In Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis, ed. by Ruth Wodak, and Michael Meyer, 87–122. London: Sage. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, Vivien, and Claudio M. Radaelli
2004 “Policy Change and Discourse in Europe: Conceptual and Methodological Issues.” West European Politics 27 (2): 183–210. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stråth, Bo
(ed) 2000 Europe and the Other and Europe as the Other. Brussels: PIE-Peter Lang. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stråth, Bo, and Anna Triandafyllidou
(eds) 2003 Representations of Europe and the Nation in Current and Prospective Member States: Media, Elites and Civil Society. Brussels: The European Commission.Google Scholar
Triandafyllidou, Anna, Ruth Wodak, and Michał Krzyżanowski
(eds.) 2009 European Public Sphere and the Media: Europe in Crisis. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
van Dijk, Teun A
1991 “The Interdisciplinary Study of News as Discourse.” In Handbook of Qualitative Methods in Mass Communication Research, ed. by Klaus Bruhn-Jensen, and Nicholas W. Jankowski, 108–120. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
van Leeuwen, Theo
2008 Discourse as Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vogler, John, and Charlotte Bretherton
2006 “The European Union as a Protagonist to the United States on Climate Change.” International Studies Perspectives 71, 1–22. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Weiss, Gilbert
2002 “Searching for Europe: The Problem of Legitimisation and Representation in Recent Political Speeches on Europe.” Journal of Language and Politics 1 (1): 59–83. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wodak, Ruth
1996 Disorders of Discourse. London: Longman. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2000 “Recontextualization and the Transformation of Meanings: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Decision Making in EU-meetings about Employment Policies.” In Discourse and Social Life, ed. by Srikant Sarangi, and Malcolm Coulthard, 185–206. Harlow: Pearson Education.Google Scholar
2001 “The Discourse-Historical Approach.” In Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis, ed. by Ruth Wodak, and Michael Meyer, 63–94. London: Sage. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2009 The Discourse of Politics in Action: Politics as Usual. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 “ ‘Communicating Europe’: Analyzing, Interpreting, and Understanding Multilingualism and the Discursive Construction of Transnational Identities.” In Globalization, Discourse, Media: In a Critical Perspective, ed. by Anna Duszak, Juliane House, and Łukasz Kumięga, 17–60. Warsaw: Wydawnictwa Uniwerystetu Warszawskiego.Google Scholar
Wodak, Ruth, and Gilbert Weiss
2004 “Visions, Ideologies and Utopias in the Discursive Construction of European Identities: Organising, Representing and Legitimising Europe.” In Communicating Ideologies: Language, Discourse and Social Practice, ed. by Martin Pütz, Jo-Anne Neff-van Aertselaer, and Teun A. van Dijk, 225–252. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Wodak, Ruth, and Michał Krzyżanowski
(eds) 2008 Qualitative Discourse Analysis in the Social Sciences. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zgajewski, Tania, and Kalila Hajjar
2005 The Lisbon Strategy: Which failure? Whose failure? And why? (Egmont Papers No. 6). Brussels: Royal Institute for International Relations.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 11 other publications

Aune, Anders
2022. Deconstructing the European Commission's Discource on Serbia's Accession Process. Eudaimonia 6:2 ► pp. 5 ff. DOI logo
Canary, Heather E. & Julie L. Taylor
2020. Policy Communication. In The Handbook of Applied Communication Research, ► pp. 675 ff. DOI logo
Currie, John S. G. & Ben Clarke
2022. Fighting talk. Journal of Language and Politics 21:4 ► pp. 589 ff. DOI logo
Dewandre* , Nicole & Orsolya Gulyás
2018. Sensitive economic personae and functional human beings. Journal of Language and Politics 17:6 ► pp. 831 ff. DOI logo
Krzyżanowski, Michał
2016. Recontextualisation of neoliberalism and the increasingly conceptual nature of discourse: Challenges for critical discourse studies. Discourse & Society 27:3 ► pp. 308 ff. DOI logo
Krzyżanowski, Michał
2018. Social media in/and the politics of the European Union. Journal of Language and Politics 17:2 ► pp. 281 ff. DOI logo
Krzyżanowski, Michał & Natalia Krzyżanowska
2022. Narrating the ‘new normal’ or pre-legitimising media control? COVID-19 and the discursive shifts in the far-right imaginary of ‘crisis’ as a normalisation strategy. Discourse & Society 33:6 ► pp. 805 ff. DOI logo
Ruzza, Carlo & Milica Pejovic
2019. Populism at work: the language of the Brexiteers and the European Union. Critical Discourse Studies 16:4 ► pp. 432 ff. DOI logo
Votoupalová, Markéta
2022. The Schengen Area as a fair-weather project? A discursive analysis of solidarity. Journal of International Relations and Development 25:3 ► pp. 685 ff. DOI logo
Zappettini, Franco & Samuel Bennett
2022. Reimagining Europe and its (dis)integration. Journal of Language and Politics 21:2 ► pp. 191 ff. DOI logo
Álvares, Maria
2022. Policy discourse in times of crisis. Journal of Language and Politics 21:5 ► pp. 742 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 26 september 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.