Is an urban waste-to-energy plant a “green” megaproject? The power of narratives in shaping the city: a Danish case study

ABSTRACT

The role of communication in shaping cities has increased mainly in the last decades due to its relevance to the policymaking process. Even if the scientific debate regarding the Narrative Policy Framework reveals the importance of policy narratives influencing policy outcomes, the relationship between policy and political narratives has often been overlooked. In this paper, we explore this relationship by analysing the policy process of a megaproject case study involving a waste-to-energy plant in Denmark and the intricate process leading to its realisation. The polysemic concept of Smart Cities initially divides the policy arena between proponents of a pro-growth rhetoric focused on market strategy (advocating for a larger plant to expand market scope) and proponents of a pro-green rhetoric embracing sustainability, questioning the adequacy of the plant’s size (and highlighting potential negative trade-offs of a big plant). We illustrate how implementing policy ideas relies heavily on constructing narratives that political decision-makers use to advocate for specific policies (policy narratives) presented within a broader institutional discourse in the political arena (political narratives). This study assesses how the polysemic nature of policy ideas influences contemporary social institutions’ governance, structure, and operation, posing a challenge for environmental public management in today’s cities.

KEYWORDS:

• Narratives
• environmental policy idea
• smart city policies
• institutional discursive analysis
• cross-party coalition
• polisemy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Silvia Lucciarini

Silvia Lucciarini, MA in Economic Sociology and PhD in Urban Studies, is an Associate Professor of Economic Sociology in the Department of Social and Economic Sciences at Sapienza University of Rome. Her main research fields focus on the mechanisms of (re)production of inequalities, emphasizing both the spatial and organizational dimensions of public and/or experimental policies, primarily at the urban scale, exploring the dynamics between structure and agency. She has been a Professeur invité at Lumière University of Lyon 2, a visiting researcher at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City, and is currently a visiting scholar at the School of Law at the University of Nottingham, working with the Global Procurement Lab. She was also co-director of the Laboratoire International Associé “Mediterrapolis” at CNRS-Paris. Silvia has extensive experience in the conception, coordination, and participation in national and international research grants. Her contributions have appeared in journals such as the International Review of Sociology, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Cities, Policy and Society, and Central European Political Science Review.

Rossana Galdini

Rossana Galdini is Associate Professor in Sociology of Environment and Territory at the Department of Social and Economic Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, where she teaches Sociology of Environment and Territory and Urban Sociology. Her main research fields are concerned with the city as a mix of social dynamics, architectural forms and productive structures. She is member of the Doctoral School of Applied Social Sciences, at Sapienza University; member of the Corporate Advisory Board of the Executive Programme in Real Estate Luiss Business School; member of the Scientific Committee of the Master II level “Natural capital and protected areas, Faculty of Architecture, at Sapienza University. She coordinates the International Observatory on Urban Studies and Social Research “Urbs & Civitas”. She is author of numerous national and international publications. Among the most recent: Galdini R. (2023). Informality and evolution of urban space, in (editors Ferroni, Galdini, Ruocco) Urban Informality: a Multidisciplinary Perspective. Springer, Singapore. 2023; Galdini R., (with De Nardis S.) (2023). Urban Informality and Users-led Social Innovation. Challenges and Opportunity for a Human Centred City. Futures, Elsevier; Galdini R. (with Lucciarini S.) (2023). Bridging the “consent gap”. Mechanisms of legitimization in a cross-border megaproject. Policy and Society, Oxford University Press, 2023; “Temporary uses in contemporary spaces. A European project in Rome”. CITIES, vol. 96, January 2020; “Urban re-use practices in contemporary cities: experiences in Europe”, in Cities, Elsevier, 2019.