I cannot fix what doesn’t exist: Energy Poverty Discourse(s) in Germany
(2022) WPMM43 20221Department of Political Science
- Abstract
- The war in Ukraine has made the issue of energy poverty salient again in Germany after a long period of political neglect and limited attention. In studying the issue, I bridged agency and structure by employing Hajer’s Argumentative Discourse Analysis to examine both discourse coalitions and their storylines between 2017 and early 2022. I examined the discursive mechanisms behind the marginalization by turning Fraser’s reflections on misrecognition into a framework for analyzing the apparent discursive repudiation and de-structuralization of energy poverty. I find that the debate is structured by a plethora of misconceptions about both the nature of the problem and those affected by it, leading it to focus on micro-level solutions. A... (More)
- The war in Ukraine has made the issue of energy poverty salient again in Germany after a long period of political neglect and limited attention. In studying the issue, I bridged agency and structure by employing Hajer’s Argumentative Discourse Analysis to examine both discourse coalitions and their storylines between 2017 and early 2022. I examined the discursive mechanisms behind the marginalization by turning Fraser’s reflections on misrecognition into a framework for analyzing the apparent discursive repudiation and de-structuralization of energy poverty. I find that the debate is structured by a plethora of misconceptions about both the nature of the problem and those affected by it, leading it to focus on micro-level solutions. A dissonant left-wing coalition has so far failed to overcome these misconceptions and mainstream the issue, while a right-wing coalition seems to have succeeded in telling a story that marginalizes it. A far-right coalition remains discursively isolated. I conclude that misrecognition has been used as a non-policymaking tool and that narrative coherence is key for discourse coalitions seeking to put a new issue on the agenda. Finally, I argue that the intentional and unintentional misrecognition of energy poverty is a form of injustice and leads to bad governance. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9080013
- author
- Jakob, Felix LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- WPMM43 20221
- year
- 2022
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- energy poverty, misrecognition, discourse coalitions, storylines, non-policymaking
- language
- English
- id
- 9080013
- date added to LUP
- 2022-07-03 09:04:38
- date last changed
- 2022-07-03 09:04:38
@misc{9080013, abstract = {{The war in Ukraine has made the issue of energy poverty salient again in Germany after a long period of political neglect and limited attention. In studying the issue, I bridged agency and structure by employing Hajer’s Argumentative Discourse Analysis to examine both discourse coalitions and their storylines between 2017 and early 2022. I examined the discursive mechanisms behind the marginalization by turning Fraser’s reflections on misrecognition into a framework for analyzing the apparent discursive repudiation and de-structuralization of energy poverty. I find that the debate is structured by a plethora of misconceptions about both the nature of the problem and those affected by it, leading it to focus on micro-level solutions. A dissonant left-wing coalition has so far failed to overcome these misconceptions and mainstream the issue, while a right-wing coalition seems to have succeeded in telling a story that marginalizes it. A far-right coalition remains discursively isolated. I conclude that misrecognition has been used as a non-policymaking tool and that narrative coherence is key for discourse coalitions seeking to put a new issue on the agenda. Finally, I argue that the intentional and unintentional misrecognition of energy poverty is a form of injustice and leads to bad governance.}}, author = {{Jakob, Felix}}, language = {{eng}}, note = {{Student Paper}}, title = {{I cannot fix what doesn’t exist: Energy Poverty Discourse(s) in Germany}}, year = {{2022}}, }