Energy Discourses in Europe - Legitimation of EU Energy Efficiency Policy

Niina Erkama, Sampo Tukiainen

2014

Abstract

The production and use of energy is an important factor in European politics and science. However, we know little about the discussions that influence how scarce financial resources of governments and organizations are directed to different projects and action related to energy strategy of EU. Therefore, this paper studies the discourses that underlie the ‘energy talk’ of EU decision makers. This is important because discourses are resources that are employed to legitimate governmental and organizational aims and decision, such as new energy saving projects and policies. This paper is based on discourse theory that acknowledges that discourses change understanding of social situations, which also makes discursive activity a form of political activity (Hardy and Phillips, 1999). However, there are multiple and contradictory meanings and realities existing in an organization, or in any discursive space (Hardy, 2001) and discursive actors are commonly embedded in multiple discourses (Hardy and Phillips, 2004). The study will be based on interviews with EU Members of the Parliament. The results are likely to reveal local and EU-level discourses that influence establishing of new energy policies and projects on EU-level and this way affect organizations and business in Europe.

References

  1. Alvesson, M. and Deetz, S. 2000. Doing critical management research. Sage: London.
  2. Alvesson, M. and Willmott, H. 2003. Studying management critically. Sage: London.
  3. Alvesson, M. and Willmott, H. 1992. Critical theory and management studies: An introduction. In Critical Management Studies, M. Alvesson and H. Willmott (Eds.). Sage: London, 1-21.
  4. Ashforth, B. E. and Gibbs, B. W. 1990. The Double-edge of organizational legitimation. Organization Science, 1/ 2, 177-194.
  5. Berger, P.L. and Luckmann, T. 1966. The Social construction of reality. Treatise in the sociology of knowledge. Anchor Books: Garden City, NY.
  6. Boykoff, M. T. (2008). The cultural politics of climate science discourse in UK tabloids. Political Geography, 27, 549-569.
  7. Carvalho, A. (2007). Ideological cultures and media discourse on scientific knowledge: Re-reading news on climate change. Public Understanding of Science, 16, 223-243.
  8. Deephouse, D. L. and Suchman, M. 2008. Legitimacy in organizational institutionalism. In The SAGE handbook of organizational institutionalism, R. Greenwood, C. Oliver, R. Suddaby, and K. Sahlin (Eds.). Sage: Thousand Oaks, 49-77.
  9. Du Gay, P. (1996). Consumption and identity at work. London: Sage.
  10. Fairclough, N. 1992. Discourse and social change. Polity Press: Cambridge.
  11. Gamson, W. (1992). Talking politics. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
  12. Grant D., Hardy, C., Oswick C. and Putnam, L. L. 2004. Introduction: Organizational discourse: Exploring the field. In The SAGE handbook of organizational discourse, D. Grant, C. Hardy, C. Oswick and L. Putnam (Eds.). Sage: London, 1-36.
  13. Gray, B. and Stites, J. P. 2011. In search of integrative logics: Reframing the climate change debate. Strategic Organization, 9/1, 85-90.
  14. Hajer, M. (1995) The Politics of Environmental Discourse: Ecological Modernization and the Policy Process.
  15. Hardy, C. (2001). Researching organizational discourse. International Studies of Management and Organization, 31/3, 25-47.
  16. Hardy, C. and Phillips, N. 2004. Discourse and power. In The SAGE handbook of organizational discourse, D. Grant, C. Hardy, C. Oswick and L. Putnam (Eds.). Sage: London, 237-258.
  17. Hardy, C. and Phillips, N. 1999. No joking matter: Discursive struggle in the Canadian refugee system. Organization Studies, 20/1, 1-24.
  18. Heracleous, L. 2004. Interpretivist approaches to organizational discourse. In The SAGE Handbook of Organizational Discourse. D. Grant, C. Hardy, C. Oswick and L. Putnam (Eds.). Sage: London, 175-192.
  19. Hoffman, A. J. (2011). Talking past each other? Cultural framing of skeptical and convinced logics in the climate change debate. Organization & Environment, 24(3), 3-33.
  20. Kostova, T. and Zaheer, S. 1999. Organizational legitimacy under conditions of complexity: The case of the multinational enterprise. Academy of Management Review, 24/1, 64-81.
  21. Kratochvil, P & Tichy, L. (2013). EU and Russian discourse on energy relations. Energy Policy, 56, 391- 406.
  22. Lefsrud, L. M. and Meyer, R. E. (2012). Science or Science fiction? Professionals' discursive construction of climate change. Organization Studies, 33/11, 1477- 1506.
  23. Maguire S. and Hardy, C. (2009). Discourse and deinstitutionalization: The decline of DDT. Academy of Management Journal, 1, 148-178.
  24. Mumby, D. K. 2005. Theorizing resistance in organization studies: A Dialectical approach. Management Communication Quarterly, 19/1, 19-44.
  25. Mumby, D. K. 2004. Discourse, power and ideology: Unpacking the critical approach. In The SAGE handbook of organizational discourse, D. Grant, C. Hardy, C. Oswick and L. Putnam (Eds.), Sage: London, 237-258.
  26. Phillips, N. and Hardy, C. 2002. Discourse analysis: Investigating processes of social
  27. Potter, J. and Wetherell, M. 1987. Discourse and social psychology. Beyond attitudes and behaviour. Sage: London.
  28. Rafey, W, and Sovacool, B. K. (2011). Competing discourses of energy development: The implications of the Medupi coal-fired power plant in South Africa. Global Environmental Change, 21, 1141-1151.
  29. Reed, M. (1998). Organizational analysis as discourse anal- ysis: A critique. In D. Grant & C. Oswick (Eds.), Discourse and organization: 193-213. London: Sage.
  30. Rogers-Hayden T., Hatton F., and Lorenzoni, I. (2011). 'Energy security' and 'climate change': Constructing UK energy discursive realities. Global Environmental Change, 21, 134-142.
  31. Suchman, M C. 1995. Managing legitimacy: Strategic and institutional approaches. Academy of Management Review, 20/3, 571-610.
  32. Suddaby, R. and Greenwood, R. 2005. Rhetorical strategies of legitimacy. Administrative Science Quarterly, 50, 35-67.
  33. Vaara, E., Tienari, J. and Laurila, J. 2006. Pulp and paper fiction: On the discursive legitimation of global industrial restructuring. Organization Studies, 27/6, 789-810.
  34. Van Leeuwen, T. and Wodak, R. 1999. Legitimizing immigration control: a discourse-historical analysis. Discourse Studies, 1/1, 83-118.
  35. Weber, M. 1978. Economy and society. G. Roth and C. Wittich (Eds.). University of California Press: Berkeley.
  36. Wood, L. A. and Kroger, R. O. 2000. Doing discourse analysis: Methods for studying action in talk and text. Sage: Thousand Oaks.
  37. Zelditch, M. Jr. 2006. Legitimacy theory. In Contemporary Social Psychological Theories, P.J Burke (Ed.), Stanford University Press: Stanford, 324- 352.
  38. Zoller, H. M and Fairhurst, G. T. 2007. Resistance leadership: The overlooked potential in critical organizational and leadership studies. Human Relations, 60/9, 1331-1
Download


Paper Citation


in Harvard Style

Erkama N. and Tukiainen S. (2014). Energy Discourses in Europe - Legitimation of EU Energy Efficiency Policy . In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Smart Grids and Green IT Systems - Volume 1: IEEHSC, (SMARTGREENS 2014) ISBN 978-989-758-025-3, pages 350-354. DOI: 10.5220/0004981603500354


in Bibtex Style

@conference{ieehsc14,
author={Niina Erkama and Sampo Tukiainen},
title={Energy Discourses in Europe - Legitimation of EU Energy Efficiency Policy},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Smart Grids and Green IT Systems - Volume 1: IEEHSC, (SMARTGREENS 2014)},
year={2014},
pages={350-354},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0004981603500354},
isbn={978-989-758-025-3},
}


in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Smart Grids and Green IT Systems - Volume 1: IEEHSC, (SMARTGREENS 2014)
TI - Energy Discourses in Europe - Legitimation of EU Energy Efficiency Policy
SN - 978-989-758-025-3
AU - Erkama N.
AU - Tukiainen S.
PY - 2014
SP - 350
EP - 354
DO - 10.5220/0004981603500354