Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Fossil and friction free : A critical discourse analysis of sustainability in EU freight policy

Gratorp, Christina LU (2025) In Environmental Politics p.1-24
Abstract
Policy on greening freight constitutes a recent addition to the discourse on sustainability in the EU. To stimulate economic growth, the EU also plans for freight transport activity to grow significantly over the coming decades. In this paper, drawing on critical discourse analysis and Marxian geographical thought, I show how the argument for implementing sustainable freight is constructed in EU freight policy and analyse its contribution to capital reproduction. I find a dominating argument that, by promoting green expansion legitimized by clean technologies, underpins actions that reshape geographies to the demands of circulation, commerce and trade while reproducing conditions of crisis. Thus, EU freight policy harbors contradictions... (More)
Policy on greening freight constitutes a recent addition to the discourse on sustainability in the EU. To stimulate economic growth, the EU also plans for freight transport activity to grow significantly over the coming decades. In this paper, drawing on critical discourse analysis and Marxian geographical thought, I show how the argument for implementing sustainable freight is constructed in EU freight policy and analyse its contribution to capital reproduction. I find a dominating argument that, by promoting green expansion legitimized by clean technologies, underpins actions that reshape geographies to the demands of circulation, commerce and trade while reproducing conditions of crisis. Thus, EU freight policy harbors contradictions between sustainability and growth that are only discursively resolved. (Less)
Abstract (Swedish)
Policy on greening freight constitutes a recent addition to the discourse on sustainability in the EU. To stimulate economic growth, the EU also plans for freight transport activity to grow significantly over the coming decades. In this paper, drawing on critical discourse analysis and Marxian geographical thought, I show how the argument for implementing sustainable freight is constructed in EU freight policy and analyse its contribution to capital reproduction. I find a dominating argument that, by promoting green expansion legitimized by clean technologies, underpins actions that reshape geographies to the demands of circulation, commerce and trade while reproducing conditions of crisis. Thus, EU freight policy harbors contradictions... (More)
Policy on greening freight constitutes a recent addition to the discourse on sustainability in the EU. To stimulate economic growth, the EU also plans for freight transport activity to grow significantly over the coming decades. In this paper, drawing on critical discourse analysis and Marxian geographical thought, I show how the argument for implementing sustainable freight is constructed in EU freight policy and analyse its contribution to capital reproduction. I find a dominating argument that, by promoting green expansion legitimized by clean technologies, underpins actions that reshape geographies to the demands of circulation, commerce and trade while reproducing conditions of crisis. Thus, EU freight policy harbors contradictions between sustainability and growth that are only discursively resolved. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Environmental Politics
pages
24 pages
publisher
Routledge
ISSN
1743-8934
DOI
10.1080/09644016.2025.2598124
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
c6a430da-088e-421c-9971-ed925f37686b
date added to LUP
2025-12-05 15:53:07
date last changed
2025-12-10 11:48:57
@article{c6a430da-088e-421c-9971-ed925f37686b,
  abstract     = {{Policy on greening freight constitutes a recent addition to the discourse on sustainability in the EU. To stimulate economic growth, the EU also plans for freight transport activity to grow significantly over the coming decades. In this paper, drawing on critical discourse analysis and Marxian geographical thought, I show how the argument for implementing sustainable freight is constructed in EU freight policy and analyse its contribution to capital reproduction. I find a dominating argument that, by promoting green expansion legitimized by clean technologies, underpins actions that reshape geographies to the demands of circulation, commerce and trade while reproducing conditions of crisis. Thus, EU freight policy harbors contradictions between sustainability and growth that are only discursively resolved.}},
  author       = {{Gratorp, Christina}},
  issn         = {{1743-8934}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{12}},
  pages        = {{1--24}},
  publisher    = {{Routledge}},
  series       = {{Environmental Politics}},
  title        = {{Fossil and friction free : A critical discourse analysis of sustainability in EU freight policy}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2025.2598124}},
  doi          = {{10.1080/09644016.2025.2598124}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}