Mr. Zenawi's "green legacy" - promoting inclusive growth?
(2019) EKHS34 20191Department of Economic History
- Abstract
- The current state of our environment is alarming. Increasing natural disasters worldwide and rising pollution levels made a conventional economic growth model illogical to abide by. Alternative growth models are of actuality, with the Green Economy being the most popular. Defined by UNEP (2011) as a “low carbon, resource efficient and socially inclusive” economy (p.9), it raises interest among the scholar community since it molds economic growth together with both sustainable and human development. Governments actively address the issue and the related State Discourse is rich of numerous speeches. This thesis attempts to answer: to what extent is a State’s discourse on a green economy conducive to social inclusiveness, and placed the focus... (More)
- The current state of our environment is alarming. Increasing natural disasters worldwide and rising pollution levels made a conventional economic growth model illogical to abide by. Alternative growth models are of actuality, with the Green Economy being the most popular. Defined by UNEP (2011) as a “low carbon, resource efficient and socially inclusive” economy (p.9), it raises interest among the scholar community since it molds economic growth together with both sustainable and human development. Governments actively address the issue and the related State Discourse is rich of numerous speeches. This thesis attempts to answer: to what extent is a State’s discourse on a green economy conducive to social inclusiveness, and placed the focus on Ethiopia. The advances of green economy prospects in the developing, low-income world were of interest, as it became obvious that different geographical realities hide behind the green economy label. The dichotomy between the Global North and South illustrates importance of a context-specific approach to a green economy. The empirical data consisted of Ethiopia’s late Prime Minister, Mr. Meles Zenawi’s, speech at the Sixth African Economic Conference in 2011. We ran it through two main analysis processes. Scriven’s discourse analysis framework of argument analysis was used to highlight the speech’s main arguments, their construction, and portrayed meanings. The findings of this empirical analysis were compared to four green economy discourses from the Global South according to Death (2015), which revealed the green resilient discourse for Ethiopia. Though it shows that the vulnerable resource base needs resilience-building, the oppressive authoritarian political system hinders possibilities of achieving social inclusiveness. This leaves one to question the validity of “discourse” in advocating for a green economy. We are in need of micro, regional, sectoral, and even more local practical solutions if a green economy is to be fully integrated, and if it is to comprise and benefit all stakeholders in a society. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8988223
- author
- Epp, Macha LU
- supervisor
- organization
- alternative title
- A case study on Ethiopia's late Prime Minister's speech about Africa's role in the transition to a green economy
- course
- EKHS34 20191
- year
- 2019
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Green economy, Sub-Saharan Africa, discourse analysis, social inclusiveness
- language
- English
- id
- 8988223
- date added to LUP
- 2019-11-21 09:09:21
- date last changed
- 2019-11-21 09:09:21
@misc{8988223,
abstract = {{The current state of our environment is alarming. Increasing natural disasters worldwide and rising pollution levels made a conventional economic growth model illogical to abide by. Alternative growth models are of actuality, with the Green Economy being the most popular. Defined by UNEP (2011) as a “low carbon, resource efficient and socially inclusive” economy (p.9), it raises interest among the scholar community since it molds economic growth together with both sustainable and human development. Governments actively address the issue and the related State Discourse is rich of numerous speeches. This thesis attempts to answer: to what extent is a State’s discourse on a green economy conducive to social inclusiveness, and placed the focus on Ethiopia. The advances of green economy prospects in the developing, low-income world were of interest, as it became obvious that different geographical realities hide behind the green economy label. The dichotomy between the Global North and South illustrates importance of a context-specific approach to a green economy. The empirical data consisted of Ethiopia’s late Prime Minister, Mr. Meles Zenawi’s, speech at the Sixth African Economic Conference in 2011. We ran it through two main analysis processes. Scriven’s discourse analysis framework of argument analysis was used to highlight the speech’s main arguments, their construction, and portrayed meanings. The findings of this empirical analysis were compared to four green economy discourses from the Global South according to Death (2015), which revealed the green resilient discourse for Ethiopia. Though it shows that the vulnerable resource base needs resilience-building, the oppressive authoritarian political system hinders possibilities of achieving social inclusiveness. This leaves one to question the validity of “discourse” in advocating for a green economy. We are in need of micro, regional, sectoral, and even more local practical solutions if a green economy is to be fully integrated, and if it is to comprise and benefit all stakeholders in a society.}},
author = {{Epp, Macha}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Mr. Zenawi's "green legacy" - promoting inclusive growth?}},
year = {{2019}},
}