Macroeconomic narratives in a world of crises: An analysis of stories about solving the system crisis

Abstract

Macroeconomic narratives in a world of crises An analysis of stories about solving the system crisisUrhammer, Emil; Røpke, Inge General rightsCopyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.? Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. ? You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain ? You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policyIf you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us at vbn@aub.aau.dk providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. AbstractSince the financial crisis in 2008, a series of publications on macroeconomic responses to the compound crises of the economy and the environment have emerged. Under labels such as green new deal, green growth and the great transition, attempts at offering coherent responses to the crises have been made. These responses have in common that they all present a large number of policy proposals for ways in which to solve the current crises and achieve a sustainable economy. This article provides a mapping of a selection of such responses and an analysis of their content. The analysis combines discourse theory and narrative analysis and investigates discourses by studying the narratives they produce. The study thus contributes to the long line of analyses on discourses on sustainable economy: empirically, by investigating and analysing a number of macroeconomic proposals for solving the system crisis, and theoretically, by elaborating on the concept of narrative dynamics in relation to persuasive strength in political decision-making.

Citizens’ Views of Australia’s Future to 2050

“…By employing a discourse and narrative analysis framework [79][80][81] to explore the eco-centric side of this continuum, [81] reviewed and summarised a number of approaches proposed by both governmental organisations, NGOs and academic institutes to address the relation between economic development and ecological sustainability. These include, among others, Green Growth, Green Economy, Green New Deal, Steady State Economy and De-Growth, defined as follows.…”

“…Green Growth provides another win-win rhetoric: innovation, energy efficiencies and best practices will provide for both economic growth and ecological sustainability. It is often argued (see [81] and references within) that Green Economy, Green New Deal, Steady State Economy and some versions of De-Growth have less appeal because their message is more complex and they imply hard choices rather than win-win solutions.…”

“…According to the majority of our participants positive forces include equity, community, sharing, and acting locally mindful of long-term global consequences, while, in their view, negative forces include selfish short-term interests, corporate power dominating more diverse interests, and structures that reinforce unequal opportunities. [79][80][81] highlight not only the importance of narratives in social and political discourses, but also of stories with subjects, objects and causal explanations. We have all of them in our stories, including the good and the bad characters.…”

Scientific assessments to facilitate deliberative policy learning

“…5 Following the PEM idea, conflicts could perhaps be more resolvable (and less divisive or ideological) when assessing and comparing concrete future scenarios based on alternative disputed normative ideas, rather than potentially endless disputes about the abstract normative ideas themselves (Kowarsch and Edenhofer, 2016). A key tool of policy debates and policy learning alike are policy narratives to provide a simplified orientation of complex value-laden policy issues (Shanahan et al, 2011;Urhammer and Røpke, 2013). Assessments of alternative policy pathways and their implications could provide the necessary evidence base and capacity to facilitate learning, that is, changes, regarding the policy narratives held by different stakeholder groups.…”

Managing the transition to critical green growth: The ‘Green Growth State’

“…The term 'Green' has long been associated with environmental activism [21] both grassroots (i.e. Greenpeace) and political (i.e.…”