Four statements and a storyline – discourses in urban green transformation

Abstract

ABSTRACT As global society acknowledges the need for fundamental changes because of the climate crisis, local communities are addressing this need in diverse ways. This article uses discourse analysis to examine official documents and interviews with key actors in a Norwegian city that describes itself as future-oriented and ready for fundamental green transformation. The city is planning a large-scale urban green development project to improve mobility, infrastructure, waste treatment, and renovation. There are few critical voices and there is support from all political parties in the municipality. The findings indicate that the restructuring projects, although highly original, have a pragmatic foundation. Our findings illustrate how crisis communication can be transformed from a problem-oriented, prosaic, and even paralysing narrative to an optimistic, opportunistic, and imaginative storyline. However, the findings also reveal a ‘discourse coalition’ of technocrats and administrators characterised by competition, market and administrative logics, signalling the depoliticisation of local climate politics.