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Transnational contestation for local communities within the formation of the European Union’s Critical Raw Materials Act – a critical appraisal

Götz, Valeska and Harnesk, David LU (2025) In Environmental Politics p.1-23
Abstract
This article presents a critical appraisal of the European Union’s (EU) policy process that delivered the Critical Raw Materials Act, 2023–⁠2024. We combine Marxist-Gramscian perspectives on regional blocs and social movement theory on transnational contestation to study a framing contest at two points in the policy process. First, we examined environmental justice frames in technical campaigns to identify how social and environmental concerns of local communities were used as objects of contestation within the public consultation round. Second, we analyzed the followng proposal from the European Commission and found that its dominant policy frames were constructed around mining-for-sustainability, mining-for-security and... (More)
This article presents a critical appraisal of the European Union’s (EU) policy process that delivered the Critical Raw Materials Act, 2023–⁠2024. We combine Marxist-Gramscian perspectives on regional blocs and social movement theory on transnational contestation to study a framing contest at two points in the policy process. First, we examined environmental justice frames in technical campaigns to identify how social and environmental concerns of local communities were used as objects of contestation within the public consultation round. Second, we analyzed the followng proposal from the European Commission and found that its dominant policy frames were constructed around mining-for-sustainability, mining-for-security and public-acceptance-for-mining – incorporating only concerns that were less threatening to mining. We argue that technical campaigns on mining within EU policy processes will deliver outcomes in line with dominant territorial and capitalist interests – unless there are powerful domestic political campaigns that draw on political economic perspectives on environmental politics. (Less)
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author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
epub
subject
in
Environmental Politics
pages
1 - 23
publisher
Routledge
ISSN
0964-4016
DOI
10.1080/09644016.2025.2501397
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
43654a3f-d995-4c3b-b2c0-78d7f99ab507
date added to LUP
2025-05-12 13:57:56
date last changed
2025-05-13 08:45:28
@article{43654a3f-d995-4c3b-b2c0-78d7f99ab507,
  abstract     = {{This article presents a critical appraisal of the European Union’s (EU) policy process that delivered the Critical Raw Materials Act, 2023–⁠2024. We combine Marxist-Gramscian perspectives on regional blocs and social movement theory on transnational contestation to study a framing contest at two points in the policy process. First, we examined environmental justice frames in technical campaigns to identify how social and environmental concerns of local communities were used as objects of contestation within the public consultation round. Second, we analyzed the followng proposal from the European Commission and found that its dominant policy frames were constructed around mining-for-sustainability, mining-for-security and public-acceptance-for-mining – incorporating only concerns that were less threatening to mining. We argue that technical campaigns on mining within EU policy processes will deliver outcomes in line with dominant territorial and capitalist interests – unless there are powerful domestic political campaigns that draw on political economic perspectives on environmental politics.}},
  author       = {{Götz, Valeska and Harnesk, David}},
  issn         = {{0964-4016}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{05}},
  pages        = {{1--23}},
  publisher    = {{Routledge}},
  series       = {{Environmental Politics}},
  title        = {{Transnational contestation for local communities within the formation of the European Union’s Critical Raw Materials Act – a critical appraisal}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2025.2501397}},
  doi          = {{10.1080/09644016.2025.2501397}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}