The \u2018end of the world\u2019 vs. the \u2018end of the month\u2019: understanding social resistance to sustainability transition agendas, a lesson from the Yellow Vests in France

Mathilde Martin,Mine Islar

doi:10.1007/s11625-020-00877-9

Abstract

This paper investigates the Yellow Vests movement and the extent it constitutes an original platform for resistance to a sustainability transition agenda in the French context. The movement represents a disruption to global climate mitigation solutions that are often formalized at a global scale, and illustrates cultural and economic constraints in providing social justice in the age of climate change. Using a cultural performative approach, this case study reveals the relevance of framing and cultural analyses to understand such resistance. This qualitative exploration initiates a narrative analysis to assess how the universal resolve of the 2015 Paris Conference and the related legitimacy of the sustainability discourse has been further contested by the Yellow Vests and their fractured framing. From the ‘end of the world’ to the ‘end of the month’, we investigate the rise and fall of the legitimacy of the French sustainability discourse by analysing politicians’ and activists’ speeches, historical narratives as well as visual materials of resistance in France in the context of sustainability transitions. Tip of a broader social crisis, the movement reveals an original conflict of temporalities, symptomatic of the inevitable interdependency of socio-economic inequalities to sustainability transitions. Beyond the resistance itself, the Yellow Vests embody an original exemplar for the importance of cultural appropriation within the sustainability discourse’ legitimation processes.

Highlights

Protests rose throughout France and grew to be a nationwide demonstration paralyzing the institutions and the economy for weeks at the aftermath of the parliamentary vote of the 2019 national budget by the French Assembly which led to rise of diesel prices by 6.5 cents/l (Journal Officiel de la République 2018; Delrue 2018)
The Yellow Vests moment is presented as a “sustainability transition drama”, in which the antagonistic framings of the ‘end of the world’ and the ‘end of the month’ are contesting onto the public stage to influence the direction of France’s sustainability agenda
Such discord is argued to display unexpected and paralyzing barriers towards effective transition solutions. This fracture incapacitates and polarizes the domestic discourse about sustainability and climate action; but further finds its genesis within a deeply rooted loss-identified repertoire of French cultural perception and experience of sustainability, contingent to a specific socio-political culture, and history symbolized by revolution and dissent

Summary

Introduction

Protests rose throughout France and grew to be a nationwide demonstration paralyzing the institutions and the economy for weeks at the aftermath of the parliamentary vote of the 2019 national budget by the French Assembly which led to rise of diesel prices by 6.5 cents/l (Journal Officiel de la République 2018; Delrue 2018). In France, diesel use highlights important socio-economic interdependencies and regressive incidences, and further challenges the government’s goal of “tackling fuel poverty” and “socio-spatial segregation” (République Française 2016) This conflict between intended efficiency of climate mitigation and providing socio-economic justice highlights the paradox brought by the polluterpays principles applied at the domestic level. Tensions arise between the universal scale of climate change challenges and their actual resonance within specific values, visions, cultural worldviews and contexts They may subsequently activate forceful antagonisms and cognitive discords, which this paper testify through the Yellow Vests exemplar. The Conference’s conveyed “historical success” was domestically translated as a ‘French success’, strong of its diplomacy and applauded resolve for climate action Along this national achievement, it supported the legitimacy of the sustainability discourse throughout successive positive and unifying framings. Where many revolutions have occurred, we are living today in Paris the most beautiful of all revolutions, the most pacific, the revolution for climate change”

Experiential commensurability

Actor credibility

Empirical fit

Findings

Conclusions and discussion