Philip Seitz
Master’s Thesis for the Environment and Society Studies programme Nijmegen School of Management
Radboud University November 2020
(Roletschek, 2012; Steinbach, 2019)
The influence of local discourses on the
acquisition of electric buses in Brandenburg
g
2
Colophon
Document Title Programme Specialization Submission date Name Student number First supervisor University Second supervisor Master’s ThesisThe influence of local discourses on the acquisition of electric buses in Brandenburg
Environment and Society Studies Local Environmental Change and Sustainable Cities 15th November 2020 Philip Seitz s1029023 Duncan Liefferink Radboud University Rikke Arnouts
3 Summary
The transport sector is one of the main contributors to the CO2 emissions in the European Union and Germany. As electric buses have the potential to contribute to a substantial reduction of them in the transport sector this thesis focuses on electric buses. Factors that stimulate their acquisition as well as their non-acquisition are analysed on a local level.
The research process followed the assumption that regional transport policy - and thus also the decision to switch to electric buses - is influenced not only by general or institutional characteristics of the municipality or certain legal driving forces (e.g. national or European agreements on climate protection) but also by local discourses on traffic and transport policy in public, among local administrations and bus/electricity companies.
The main aim of this thesis is to understand and analyse the influence of local discourses on the acquisition of electric buses in counties and cities in the federal state of Brandenburg (Germany). For that, discourses on a local level regarding climate protection, electric mobility and governance are analysed and related to the (non-)acquisition of electric buses by cities and counties.
The theoretical basis of this research project focuses on discourses, administrative/ organizational path dependence, critical/incremental policy change processes and linkages among them.
As a research method discourse analysis was used. It was used to analyse different tracks of regional discourses on transport policy and planning; through semi-structured interviews with key actors, the analysis of county development plans and newspaper articles. A comparative case study design allowed to compare different counties in Brandenburg. This made it possible to acknowledge the particular context and reveal its impact on policy change processes (e.g. path dependence).
This analysis resulted in the identification of a technocratic, a climate-policy and an ecological modernization discourse on electric buses. Whereas the technocratic discourse on electric buses goes usually along with path dependency and a non-acquisition of electric buses, the climate-policy discourse and especially the ecological modernization discourse on electric buses lead to a more positive evaluation of electric buses and a more eager acquisition of them.
A greater acknowledgement of these discourses and related institutional contexts and processes can help practioners in the field of public transport and electric buses to understand the relations and processes within this field better. Moreover, it can help to design better fitting policies and to contribute to an environmental-friendly turn in transport politics.
4 Table of contents Summary 3 List of illustrations 7 List of figures 7 List of tables 7
List of acronyms and abbreviations 8
1. Introduction 9
1.1 Research aim and research questions 9
1.2 Scientific and societal relevance 10
2. Conceptualizing transformation and policy change 13
2.1 Discourse theory 13
2.2 Pathways to policy change 15
2.2.1 Critical policy change and policy entrepreneurs 15
2.2.2 Incremental policy change 17
2.3 Barriers to policy change 18
2.3.1 Path dependency 18
2.3.2 Organizational culture and financial constraints 19
2.4 Theoretical framework 21
2.5 Operationalisation 22
3. Methodology 25
3.1 Research strategy 26
3.2 Case study design and case selection 28
3.3 Data collection 31
3.4 Data analysis 33
3.5 Validity and reliability of the research 37
5
4.1 Technocratic discourse 39
4.2 Ecological modernization discourse 40
4.3 The discourse on electric mobility in Germany 40
5. Analysis 47
5.1 Identified discourses and storylines 47
5.2 Technocratic discourse on electric buses 49
5.3 Storylines within the technocratic discourse on electric buses 52
5.3.1 Cost effectiveness storyline 52
5.3.2 System change storyline 56
5.3.3 Immatureness storyline 57
5.3.4 Effective policy storyline 58
5.4 Climate-policy discourse on electric buses 59
5.5 Storylines within the climate-policy discourse on electric buses 61 5.5.1 General mobility transition storyline 61 5.5.2 Future means of transport storyline 62
5.5.3 Eco-friendliness storyline 64
5.6 Ecological modernization discourse on electric buses 65
5.7 Case studies 69
5.7.1 Case study Neuruppin 69
5.7.2 Case study Eberswalde 71
6. Conclusion and implications 75
6.1 National, regional and city discourses on electric buses 75
6.2 Institutional implications 77
6.3 Impact factors for an acquisition of electric buses 78 6.4 Impact factors for a non-acquisition of electric buses 79
6
7.1 Recommendations for further research 84
7.2 Recommendations for praxis 85
References 87
Annex 1: Interview guide 97
Annex 2: Confidentiality form 99
Annex 3: Original interview excerpts 100
Annex 4: Operationalisation 110
7 List of illustrations
List of figures
Figure 1: Development of CO2 emissions by sector in the European Union 11
Figure 2: Theoretical framework 21
Figure 3: Illustration of research process related to municipalities 27 Figure 4: Data collection overview for Brandenburg 33 Figure 5: Development of the electric mobility discourse from 1990-2010 41 Figure 6: Differences – electric mobility discourse in the 1990s and 2000s 42 Figure 7: German federal government documents with an impact on electric mobility 43
Figure 8: Overview of main discourse storylines 48
Figure 9: Differences in the coverage of discourses in local newspaper articles 49
Figure 10: Discourse coverage in interviews 50
Figure 11: Discourse coalition of the technocratic discourse on electric buses 51 Figure 12: Close relation of system change and cost effectiveness codings 54 Figure 13: Discourse coalition of the climate-policy discourse on electric buses 60 Figure 14: Discourse coalition of the ecological modernization discourse on electric buses 66 Figure 15: Timeline concerning the planned acquisition of electric buses in Neuruppin 70 Figure 16: Illustration of conducted interviews and carried discourses of interviewees in
Neuruppin 71
Figure 17: Timeline concerning the development of electric buses in Neuruppin 72 Figure 18: Illustration of conducted interviews and carried discourses of interviewees in
Eberswalde 72
List of tables
Table 1: Overview research questions and related chapters 28
8 List of acronyms and abbreviations
Acronym or abbreviation Meaning
CO2 Carbon dioxide
COVID-19 Coronavirus Disease 2019
IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
NGO Non-governmental organization
PPI Public Procurement of Innovative solutions
TU Technical university
VDV Verband Deutscher Verkehrsunternehmen
(Association of German Transport Companies)
9 1. Introduction
Although many European (e.g. European Green Deal, European Clean Bus Deployment Initiative, Clean Vehicles Directive) and German (e.g. “Klimaschutzgesetz“) (government) initiatives focus on sustainable mobility in cities and a big amount of subsidies is available for the acquisition of electric buses there are big differences between cities in Germany. When it comes to the change to electric buses some cities, respectively public transport companies, are reluctant to buy even one electric bus whereas other cities/public transport companies already bought electric buses in large numbers. It is obvious that there are disparities here between “frontrunner cities” and cities without no ambitions concerning the change to electric buses. For example, the transport company that is responsible for the public transport in the German city of Wiesbaden (278.000 inhabitants) ordered 56 electric buses (Daimler, 2019) and follows the vision to become the first German city with a “complete emission-free public transport” (English translation) (ESWE, 2019) whereas Chemnitz (243.000 inhabitants) in the Eastern part of Germany has yet no ambition to change to electric buses and bought 15 new diesel buses in 2019 (Brandenburg, 2019).
The subsequent question after this insight is: How are those differences between cities explainable? Which discourses compete here with each other in which contexts?
In a summarizing study (Lember, Kattel & Kalvet, 2014) about innovative public procurement strategies the effect of different contexts and discourses is especially highlighted: “It is already quite well documented in various case studies in the field, but also in this book, that public procurers are generally risk-averse and tend to be process- rather than outcome-oriented. This is generally considered to be if not innovation-hostile then at least innovation-neutral behavior that is deeply rooted in the currently dominating public-procurement culture. […] And here, as with any other policy field, the choice, implementation, continuity and discontinuity of PPI policies only seldom reflect rationally calculated and planned processes, but rather it reflects the struggles between competing ideas that are nurtured and developed in specific institutional environments.” (Lember, Kattel & Kalvet, 2014, p. 295).
1.1 Research aim and research questions
The research aim of the thesis is to reveal local discourses about electric buses in relation to sustainability, transport and governance discourses as well as set them into relation to similar supra-regional and national discourses in Germany. In the end, the research should have shed light on the connection of the development of these discourses and related organizational
10
arrangements related to electric buses in the German federal state of Brandenburg. Moreover, the question of what enables, promotes or hinders the local change to electric buses should have been answered. More specifically the following main question should be answered in the thesis:
How and which discourses and storylines influence the local acquisition of electric buses? Supported is this main question by the following two subquestions:
● Do national and local discourses in Germany align with the findings of the discourse analysis in Brandenburg?
● Why certain cities are much more ambitious when it comes to the acquisition of/change to electric buses?
Whereas the first subquestion contributes to data collection triangulation and enhances the transferability of the findings the second more global subquestion contributes to theoretical triangulation in this study (see also chapter 3.5).
1.2 Scientific and societal relevance
The societal relevance to slow climate change down is connected to the obligation to drastically reduce emissions in all possible sectors. The transport sector was the only sector in the European Union where CO2 emissions grew from 1990 until 2014 (European Commission, 2019). In all other sectors such as energy production, industry, agriculture or households it became, sometimes substantially, less as figure one shows. The transport sector is responsible for the second largest emission of greenhouse gases in the European Union after the energy sector (European Environment Agency, 2019).
If one looks closer to the parts within the transport sector that are responsible for the biggest share of CO2 emissions then road transport has the biggest share with 72.8 % (European Commission, 2019). The comparison with the share of railways (0.6%) (European Commission, 2019) shows dramatically the relevance of road transport in the joint effort to reduce emissions. The relevance of the introduction of electric buses as an emission free, non-individual (so political more directly steerable) means of transport is therefore striking. Furthermore, the focus of this research project on Germany, respectively on a federal state of Germany (Brandenburg), is due to Germany's responsibility for the biggest amount of produced emissions in the European Union (European Commission, 2020).
11
Figure 1: Development of CO2 emissions by sector in the European Union (European Commission, 2019)
The scientific relevance of the research proposal arises due to missing links in the research about electric buses and the effect of related discourses about governance, transport and electric mobility in related administrations and transport organizations on the acquisition of them. The focus on the local level is especially important in a time when the local level has gained more political importance (e.g. Cabria et al., 2006).
Many researchers have been occupied with studying the technical side and requirements of electric buses; e.g. studies were conducted about locating charging infrastructure (e.g. Xylia, et al., 2017), energy storage requirements (e.g. Rogge, Wollny & Sauer, 2015), battery capacity (e.g. Gao et al., 2017) or chemistry (e.g. Zhang et al., 2017). Also, from the field of economic studies a lot of research to electric buses is already done: e.g. about the total costs of ownership (e.g. Nurhadi et al., 2014), the economic feasibility of electric buses in public transport (e.g. Krawiec et al., 2016) or lifecycle costs (e.g. Lajunen, 2018).
In the field of political science or environmental studies institutional barriers and transport policy discourses/ environmental discourses in general were analysed (e.g. Curtis and Low, 2012) but not related to the local change or introduction of electric buses. One qualitative study was conducted about hindrances in the introduction of electric buses in Canada from the view of transit providers - as a first study of this kind as the authors claim (Mohamed, Ferguson & Kanaroglou, 2017). Furthermore, two political scientific studies in Munich about electric
12
mobility in general, one of them about related storylines, (Servou, 2016; Tschoerner-Budde, 2017) and a nationwide discourse analysis about electric mobility in general from the Technical University Berlin (2011) were conducted (see also chapter 4.3). However, as Mohamed, Ferguson and Kanaroglou (2017) state: “This perspective is an under-researched one.” (p.147). While the economic and technical feasibility of electric buses was researched in detail the political-discursive requirements for the local change to electric buses have not been researched in depth yet.
Thus, this research project is scientifically relevant as it fills gaps in research by analysing the actual topic of electric buses and their local acquisition from a discourse analytical and political scientific perspective. Also, it applies existing theories and methodological concepts at a local level to developments that are proceeding actual and fast. It brings different views and theoretical concepts together and broadens the academic knowledge about local transitions by that.
13
2. Conceptualizing transformation and policy change
In the following chapters the discourse analytical approach by Hajer (1995) and complementing theoretical approaches that conceptualize transformation and policy change are stated and evaluated. It should (pre-)structure this research project. In the end of this chapter, the integration of the mentioned theories leads to a theoretical framework.
The leading theoretical angle of this research project is the discourse analytical approach of Hajer (1995). To enter the analysis from this theoretical angel accounts for the explorative character of this research project: to first of all explore and reconstruct discourses, storylines and their interaction with each other. This theoretical angle aligns with the main research question: “How and which discourses and storylines affect the local acquisition of electric buses?”. Furthermore, this theoretical angle builds the basis for the answer to the subordinated research question: “Do local discourses in Germany align with the findings of the discourse analysis in Brandenburg?”.
This theoretical main perspective is subsequently complemented by theoretical approaches that focus more closely on specific barriers to policy change and the speed of policy change. These approaches allow to provide complementing answers to the more global subquestion of this study: “Why are certain cities much more ambitious when it comes to the acquisition of/change to electric buses?”.
These complementing approaches are applied by acknowledging the mediating effect of discourses on them. The subsequently depicted processes of policy change as well as barriers to policy change are seen as having a discursive counterpart which legitimizes and communicates them at all times.
2.1 Discourse theory
Hajer (1995) describes in his book “The Politics of Environmental Discourse” on the basis of discourses on acid rain in the Netherlands and Great Britain how discourses evolve, interact and institutionalise. The role political science should capture from his view is to “[…] illuminate the places, moments, and institutions where certain perceptions of environmental change and social development emerge and are reproduced, and […] reconstruct the argumentative struggle that determines which perceptions at some point start to dominate the course of affairs in environmental politics.” (Hajer, 1995, p.19).
The suggestion of Hajer (1995) to properly analyse the relation of discursive orders and practices is to use the concept of storylines and then look at the argumentative exchange: Why
14
certain things appear as appropriate and others not? How “appositional forces seek to challenge these constructs“? (Hajer, 1995, p.55). Following Hajer, storylines are the central element in referring to discursive orders. Change is subsequently explainable according to the rise, preservation or decline of certain storylines that are related to (sets of) discursive orders and discursive closure: “The discursive practice of the metaphor, recently rediscovered in political science, for instance, comes under the definition of a story-line, as do analogies, historical references, cliches, appeals to collective fears or senses of guilt. These shallow and ambiguous discursive practices are the essential discursive cement that creates communicative networks among actors with different or at best overlapping perceptions and understandings. They are, therefore, also the prime vehicles of change.” (Hajer, 1995, p.63).
Subsequently, discourse coalitions are made of actors that agree upon a set of various uttered storylines which are uttered by them as well as certain discursive practices done by them (Hajer, 1995). Usually, discourse coalitions actively couple them in a common political project (Hajer, 1995).
Storylines reduce discursive complexity for different actors and by that facilitate problem closures: “Storylines are narratives on social reality through which elements from many different domains are combined and that provide actors with a set of symbolic references that suggest a common understanding.” (Hajer, 1995, p.62). The following struggle for discursive hegemony “fought” by these discourse coalitions is won by the actor coalition that reaches high degrees in acceptability, credibility and trust (Hajer, 1995).
Hajer (1995) argues that discursive hegemony is reached if a certain discourse becomes institutionalised. That is the case if a discourse is translated into concrete policies and institutional arrangements: “We will speak of discourse institutionalisation if a given discourse is translated into institutional arrangements, i.e. if the theoretical concepts of ecological modernization are translated into concrete policies (i.e. shifting investment in mobility from road to rail) and institutional arrangements (introduction of multi-value auditing, or the restructuring of old departmental divisions). If these two conditions are satisfied, a discourse can be said to be hegemonic in a given domain.” (Hajer, 1995, p.61).
Policy change, so Hajer (1995), is linked to discursive transformation. Discursive transformation is in turn related to discursive interpellations, so “moments where routinized proceedings are interrupted” (Hajer, 1995, p.60). These cracks happen if discourse coalitions
15
and discursive hegemony are shifting. New discourse-coalitions and their (new) framings of reality with (new) different premises stimulating policy change.
2.2 Pathways to policy change
This subchapter gives an overview of two main forms of policy change. To accurately assess different degrees of ambitiousness of cities/counties in relation to the acquisition of electric buses a distinction between critical and incremental policy change processes seems necessary. With this course of action the temporal component in policy change processes can be acknowledged more accurately than in the discourse analytical approach of Hajer (1995). For both kinds of policy change related indicators, respectively their perception, that indicate the agenda status of issues are important. Institutions respectively organizations need to “create” problems, so to categorize and frame them, to be able to solve them within them (Hajer, 1995). The central measure, according to Kingdon (2014), for the identification of problems in this context are (accepted) indicators that make problems out of conditions: ”In general, not every condition is seen as a problem. For a condition to be a problem, people must become convinced that something should be done to change it. People in and around government make that translation by evaluating conditions in the light of their values, by comparisons between people or between […] countries, and by classifying conditions into one category or another.“ (Kingdon, 2014, p.114). Changes of indicators and their magnitude are important. How much attention is put on certain indicators is related to hegemonic discourses in public respectively in governments and administrations. When discourses are shifting also the indicators and their scope do so. This in turn affects the speed of policy change in policy fields related to these indicators.
2.2.1 Critical policy change and policy entrepreneurs
An often-described, more promptly form of policy change in theories on policy change is critical policy change. Moreover, this theoretical focus aligns with the shift in the German media and public towards a higher awareness of climate change as a compelling issue (Bayerischer Rundfunk, 2020).
Crises in this context can be understood as “events or developments widely perceived by members of relevant communities to constitute urgent threats to core community values and structures.” (italic in original) (Boin, Hart and Mcconnell, 2009, p.6). Translated to discursive theory critical policy change can be understood as a process caused by a crisis which is framed according to (hegemonic) discourses and storylines.
16
Political scientists as Curtis and Low (2012) or Kingdon (2014) depict critical policy change as a crisis related opening of policy or opportunity windows. Curtis and Low (2012) as well as Kingdon (2014) agree that this opening is caused by “political vectors” or “streams” that converge at this moment. The “political vectors” that were described among others by Curtis and Low (2012) are e.g. growing environmentalism or “public expenditure crises” (p.32). Boin, Hart and Mcconnell (2009) state rightly that crises “generate framing contests to interpret events, their causes and the responsibilities” (Boin, Hart and Mcconnell, 2009, p.1).
Crises create opportunity windows to re-frame, renegotiate and restructure political processes and structures: “When a crisis de-legitimizes the power and authority relationships that these discourses underpin, structural change is desired and expected by many.” (Boin, Hart and Mcconnell, 2009, p.2). After a while causal frames are being applied that try to identify blameable individuals/policies. However, the crisis itself also plays a role: “Some events are apparently so compelling that the scope for ‘meaning making’ through purposeful framing is rather constricted.” (Boin, Hart and Mcconnell, 2009, p.26).
In crisis situations respectively processes of critical policy change policy entrepreneurs are of major importance. Although Hajer (1995) rejects an “individualist ontology”, he refers to different kinds of “brokers”, e.g. in his analysis of the ecological modernization discourse in the Netherlands, in a relational sense of meaning: “It seems more plausible that actors that operate within a given coalition position themselves or are being positioned as brokers at certain moments in the course of a specific argumentative inter-play while being advocates at other moments or places.” (p. 71).
In other theories on policy change similarly described actors capture a more central place and the analysis of them is conceived as more essential. While staying in this relational understanding of Hajer (1995) policy entrepreneurs (Kingdon, 2014) or change agents (Curtis & Low, 2012) and their course of action should be stated more in depth in this subchapter to acknowledge their more central position in other prominent theories on policy change and complement the approach of Hajer (1995).
Many political scientists argue that policy entrepreneurs capture a central place as coalition members (e.g. Curtis & Low, 2012; Kingdon, 2014; Weible & Jenkins-Smith, 2016). They enable or accelerate policy change, e.g. by creating support networks and linking coalition groups (Curtis & Low, 2012). Kingdon (2014) describes policy entrepreneurs as following: “We have spoken of advocates for proposals or for the prominence of an idea. Let us label
17
these advocates policy entrepreneurs. […] They could be in or out of government, in elected or appointed positions, in interest groups or research organizations. But their defining characteristic, much as in the case of a business entrepreneur, is their willingness to invest their resources-time, energy, reputation, and sometimes money-in the hope of a future return.” (p.122).
Policy entrepreneurs actively couple policies with political issues: “They hook solutions to problems, proposals to political momentum, and political events to policy problems.” (Kingdon, 2014, p.182). Those linkages may not appear without the policy entrepreneurs. However, windows for political opportunities open independently from policy entrepreneurs: “The window opens because of some factor beyond the realm of the individual entrepreneur, but the individual takes advantage of the opportunity.” (Kingdon, 2014, p.182). Policy windows open by e.g. (swings in) the national mood and the sense for that of political actors, communication campaigns, turnovers of important political actors or changes of whole administrations (Kingdon, 2014).
Moreover, policy entrepreneurs need to pave the way for their offered solutions in advance to an opening policy window. As Kingdon (2014) argues, they need to soften up their solutions before they can use them in the light of an opening policy window:” Many good proposals have fallen on deaf ears because they arrived before the general public, the specialized publics, or the policy communities were ready to listen.” (Kingdon, 2014, p.130).
To successfully foster policy change policy entrepreneurs need to be persistent, proficient, experienced in negotiating as well as be in a speaker/decision-making position (Kingdon, 2014).
2.2.2 Incremental policy change
Hajer (1995) states that through social learning policy change is possible. Weible & Jenkins-Smith (2016) identified important factors that can enable and enhance learning processes in politics. From their point of view policy learning in general is only possible if the involved parties/coalitions are open for new perspectives and fair negotiations. This is possible if there is an intermediate level of conflict among coalitions/actors and a high amount of coalition members with “moderate”, so speaking more similar, beliefs (Weible & Jenkins-Smith, 2016). This enables the search for pragmatic solutions on the level of goal attainment. Moreover, it should be possible to steer an issue in a political way. For that purpose, enough
18
scientific/technical information should be available which showcases the technical and political feasibility of policy proposals (Kingdon, 2014; Weible & Jenkins-Smith, 2016).
As a specific form of policy learning Weible and Jenkins-Smith (2016) named forums in which related actors can exchange knowledge and opinions. However, to attract enough influential coalitions members these forums need to be prestigious and professional enough and incorporate „accepted quantitative data and theory“ (Weible & Jenkins-Smith, 2016, p.29). Also Hajer (1995) named “sensory experience“, specifically symposia, meetings or excursions of policy makers, as an important aspect in the discursive regulation.
2.3 Barriers to policy change
In the following important barriers to policy change are described. These barriers can hinder policy change and usually go along with discourse reproduction. The main barriers described in the following are path dependency effects, an innovation-unfriendly organizational culture and financial constraints. All of these barriers have a discursive counterpart which legitimize and communicate them.
An analysis that focus on them can explain more specifically why administrations or bus companies with a similar share of discourses and storylines might still act slower respectively differently in different municipalities concerning the acquisition of electric buses. Especially, it can illuminate how more structural facilitations and limitations, e.g. institutional regulations and routines, work together with more flexible discursive dynamics and how this affects the ambitiousness of municipalities to acquire electric buses.
2.3.1 Path dependency
A theoretical approach that focuses on institutional barriers and the role of path dependency is described by Carey Curtis and Nicholas Low (2012) in “Institutional barriers to sustainable transport”. They refer to why and how path dependency appears.
If an institution/organization is dominant in a certain field it can benefit from staying in the old path rather than changing to a new, possibly better one: “For some products and policies (but not all) there is increasing value to the producers to keep producing more of the same rather than change to a superior alternative. Increasing returns become possible when a firm is able to gain market dominance, which in turn allows the delivery of monopoly profits.” (Curtis & Low, 2012). Curtis and Low (2012) claim that the track that is chosen initially is influenced by “random events” that later have a big impact. While the track “unfolds” the chance for a change
19
of the track becomes more and more unlikely even if the (future) outcomes are negative (Curtis & Low, 2012).
The reasons for path-dependent processes, according to Arthur (1994) (as cited in Curtis & Low, 2012, p.29), are:
● “Large set-up or fixed costs. […] Total fixed cost per unit falls as output increases, and there is therefore an incentive to stay with the technology used at the start.”
● “Learning effects. Over the course of time in the use of a technology, firms learn better ways of producing the same goods and at lower cost. Consumers learn to use products more effectively, which may stimulate innovations in the same product line. […]” ● “Coordination effects. […] They are particularly significant when a technology has to
be matched to a particular infrastructure. […] The infrastructure, itself usually requiring large investment, and the numbers of users creates a momentum to continue with the same technology.”
● “Adaptive expectations. As a type of product increasingly prevails on the market, the belief grows that it will continue to prevail in future […]” (Arthur, 1988, p. 10, as cited in Curtis & Low, 2012, p.29)
Curtis and Low (2012) state that institutional path dependence also means discursive path dependence. Changes here signal also a subsequent change in the institutional realm (Curtis & Low, 2012). They depict cases of strong storylines that covered path-dependent processes e.g. in the Australian transport sector: “Overall it appears that public transport agencies have not had strong storylines of their own and where the strong storyline of sustainability could have been used, it has been used only rarely. […] Instead they have allowed themselves to be buried in the discourse around the ‘public transport deficit’ for many years.” (p.154). The strength of these storylines evolved, according to Curtis and Low (2012), from the strength of the related discourse network in which different actors shared a “common argumentative language” (p.198) and a coherent collaboration of actors took place. On the other side, the sustainability storylines were only weakly and inconsistently articulated (Curtis and Low, 2012).
2.3.2 Organizational culture and financial constraints
Looking at the critical success factors for successful innovation with Industry 4.0 technologies as stated by Jabour et al. (2018) it becomes clear that the overall culture of organizations, which is expressed in routines and rules, affect its ability to change or to innovate. For example, an organizational culture that promotes close-meshed, trustful cooperation and autonomy, also of
20
organizational sub-units, can lead to more creative output in organizations and a higher degree of innovation (Amabile, 1998; Jabour et al., 2018; Jones & George, 1998).
Thus, the culture of and in institutions and organizations has a considerable impact on processes of change and innovation. Furthermore, routines and rules work as a mediator between institutional limitations and facilitations of meaning-making on one side and more flexible discourse dynamics on the other side
A good example that can illustrate this mediating character are budget constraints: “At an intermediate level between day to day politics and deep structure, the capacity of an organization to plan transport infrastructure is determined both by the financial resources to support such planning activity, and the routines accepted as justifying need.” (Curtis & Low, 2012, p.19). The routines in turn are influenced by rules that are influenced by a specific culture and belief systems which are related to certain discourses (Curtis & Low, 2012).
As Kingdon (2014) states rightly are budget constraints “subject to interpretation”: “Some policy makers can find a deficit of a given size as tolerable, for instance, while others would find it outrageous. The budget constraint can be cited as an argument against a proposal that one does not favor on other grounds, and can be sidestepped for proposals that one does favor, by underestimating their cost or ignoring their long-range cost altogether.” (Kingdon, 2014, p.108). A budget constraint, even appearing as an objective, rational constraint, is relative and subject of argumentative struggles. Kingdon (2014) mentions that most of the time there are options to “cut other programs” or “raise taxes”: “The budget constraint isn't so much there, as it is a question of how you handle the budgetary implications.” (Kingdon, 2014, p.108). Nevertheless, long-lasting budget constraints can have an impact on the mindset of decision makers to be hesitant to changes as well as exuberant financial resources pave the way for innovative projects (Kingdon, 2014).
21 2.4 Theoretical framework
The theoretical framework as shown below unites the aforementioned theoretical approaches in an applicable way.
Figure 2: Theoretical framework
The two contradictory paths depicted are policy change (on top) and no policy change (downward). The policy change path is related to institutional/policy change as well as discourse transformation and an institutionalisation of new discourses on the discursive level. The no policy change path is coined by political and discursive standstill (discourse reproduction/ hegemony of established discourses). All the processes that result in policy change or no policy change are going along with certain discourses and their storylines as well as related coalitions behind them. This accompanying discursive level is illustrated on the right side of the theoretical framework.
Policy change
path
No policy change
path
22
The main factors of the no policy change path, respectively a blocked path towards policy change, are path dependency effects, financial constraints, innovation-unfriendly structures and organizational culture respectively routinized and prevailing understandings and framings. Path dependency effects are interlinked with these factors as they mutually facilitate each other. These named factors shall rather be understood as a product of and a reason for certain discourses and less as impregnable “hard factors“: Routinized understandings and framings develop out of certain discourses that became hegemonic. An innovation-unfriendly structure and organizational culture goes along with certain discourses on the organization of work and innovation. Also, the extent of the limiting effect of financial constraints in public administrations is rather a matter of discussion and related to the significance of agenda items and related discourses.
On the other side, two main processes coin the policy change path in the theoretical framework: critical and incremental policy change.
Critical policy change can come, according to the mentioned theories, through crises respectively the appearance of “political vectors” (Curtis & Low, 2012) that facilitate the opening of policy windows. However, subsequently these need to be exploited by “change agents” (Curtis & Low, 2012) respectively “discourse coalitions” (Hajer, 1995) to successfully enable policy change that leads to an institutionalisation of the respective hegemonic discourses. The second way which can lead to policy change respectively a successful discourse institutionalisation is incremental policy change.
The central and accompanying position of discourses and discourse coalitions in the framework accounts for their central role in the process of policy change. Discourses structure social realities on one side and get structured by them on the other side at the same time. They come before and with relevant changes and processes and after crises and influential events. Discourses can be either transformed and become hegemonic to result in a discourse institutionalisation or to be reproduced and facilitate political standstill (Hajer, 1995). Then discourses were not transformed and no new discourses became hegemonic. In the end, discourses decide the direction and the scope of change.
2.5 Operationalisation
In this subchapter the theoretical concepts are operationalised and related to the research questions. According to Van Thiel (2014) an adequate operationalisation needs to contain three steps: the definition of theoretical concepts in a comprehensive way, the translation and
23
application of these concepts to the “real world” and a determination in which way the translated concepts/variables can be measured. The last two steps are applied in this subchapter respectively in annex 4 regarding the questionnaire and coding specifically.
How and which discourses and storylines influence the local acquisition of electric buses?
To answer the above stated main research question the discourse analytical approach of Hajer (1995) is applied. This means to analyse and identify narratives in the local debate on electric buses, their linkages to underlying interpretive schemes/worldviews and actor networks that utter and support particular narratives in this debate.
The relevance of discourses in local debates can be assessed by analysing their degree of institutionalisation and their general share within local administrations and bus companies: Which share of discourses and storylines is present to which degree in which societal/institutional realm? If and how discourses became hegemonic (measurable e.g. by reference to the introduction of certain policies or in the way/if discourses lead action) and institutionalised (measurable e.g. by reference to the creation of related job positions e.g. in local administrations)?
Do national and local discourses in Germany align with the findings of the discourse analysis in Brandenburg?
This subquestion focuses on the comparison of identified storylines and discourses in the German federal state of Brandenburg, according to the discourse analytical approach of Hajer (1995), with other discourses and storylines in Germany, identified by other researchers (see chapter 4). The comparison of them allows to measure if an alignment is present or not and how big the alignment is.
Why certain cities are much more ambitious when it comes to the acquisition of/change to electric buses?
To answer the above stated more global subquestion the discourse analytical approach by Hajer (1995) is complemented by theoretical approaches that have different main foci in the analysis of policy change.
The first completion is the focus on critical and incremental policy change processes (Boin, Hart and Mcconnell, 2009; Kingdon, 2014; Weible & Jenkins-Smith, 2016) and policy
24
entrepreneurs. These foci specifically shed light on the divergent degree of ambitiousness of different cities/counties to acquire electric buses.
Concerning critical policy change it can be measured if and how coalition actors perceive a crisis and how they evaluate issues and indicators that are related to it (cf. Kingdon, 2014). Thus, the indicators that can be measured here are the stated degree of crisis in related discursive units (Do policy actors perceive a related crisis? And if so, to what extent?) and the evaluation of related indicators/issues. For example, in the case of the German diesel emission scandal a related indicator is the air quality in (inner) cities. However, if this indicator is not evaluated as a relevant indicator by a policy actor the perceived scope and effect of the related crisis, the German diesel emission scandal, on policy change is arguably smaller.
Secondly, it can be analysed how these perceptions and evaluations are related to certain discourses by having a closer look on determining storylines. Finally, it can be observed if, how and in which speed these evaluations, also in the light of specific discourses, lead actions and stimulate institutional change.
Another important way towards a change of existing policies is incremental policy change. Especially Weible and Jenkins-Smith (2016) give a lead how these changes can be assessed. They refer to the important role of forums in the process of incremental policy change or policy learning. It can be measured if such forums or other forms of (institutionalised) interaction exist(ed) and if they could stimulate policy learning and (lasting) policy change. Thus, the measurable, related indicators are the existence of such forums/ forms of (institutionalised) interaction in a certain area, the quality of them (e.g. degree of professionality, inclusion of most of the relevant actors in the related area, availability and incorporation of technical/scientific information) and their efficacy (Have e.g. forums led to processes of policy change?).
One big opponent of policy change are institutional and organizational barriers. An important concept in this relation that is employed in this study is the path dependency approach. By incorporating this approach into the theoretical framework it can be measured if certain path dependency effects, as described in chapter 2.3.1, are present or not and how these effects correspond with certain (hegemonic) discourses.
Barriers concerning the organizational culture, specifically financial constraints, can be assessed by evaluating the related debate, e.g. on financial aspects, and its comparison to prevailing, institutional routines and discourses.
25 3. Methodology
The choice of discourse analysis as a research method reflects a constructivist research philosophy. Since in the research process contextual and local framings and meanings are identified the ontological understanding is relative. So, the belief is supported that meanings are constructed relatively – within a specific context and framing (Guba & Lincoln, 1994). Subsequently, due to “ontological diversity and complexity“ (Moses & Knutsen, 2012, p.10), different contexts, value systems, framings and observer bias no absolute truth can be approached. Everything can be understood in many ways. Perceptions are automatically categorized and related to certain frames by people; so, that they are perceived as parts of already existing, often culturally dominant interpretative frameworks (Donati, 2001). However, these frameworks are affected and shaped by personal and specific experiences and backgrounds related e.g. to culture, religion, profession, gender, time, place and political positionings. This notion supports the focus in this thesis to understand the process of decision-making regarding the conversion to electric buses in different contexts. As Merriam and Tisdell (2015) state “qualitative researchers are interested in understanding the meaning people have constructed; that is, how people make sense of their world and the experiences they have in the world.” (p. 15).
The verification of hypotheses, as it would be in (Post-)Positivism, is not the aim nor helps to contribute to the aim of this thesis. The dualist view on reality would lead necessarily to shortcomings in the analysis here. Differences that appear e.g. due to different contexts are important and part of the analysis (Guba & Lincoln, 1994).
The critical-dialogical nature of inquiry within Critical Theory could be also applied in this thesis but is not a foregrounded aim in the process of understanding decision-making. The critical and transformative character of Critical Theory fits not to the aim of this research (Guba & Lincoln, 1994) as the aim of this research project is first of all to understand and to reconstruct. The goal to explain differences between certain cities based on discourses, between frontrunner cities and cities without ambitions, focuses on „individual reconstructions“ (Guba & Lincoln, 1994) and less on structural-historic insights as it would be in Critical Theory. Also, knowledge is not only value-mediated, as it is claimed in Critical Theory often, but created in an interactive context-dependent process.
26 3.1 Research strategy
The research strategy of this thesis orients itself on the approach Hajer (2006) suggested. The research process started with desk research and document analysis. In this stage of the research first storylines and categorisations were identified. This allowed to get an overview over the field and the researched subject. Especially the analysis of newspaper articles allowed first rough conclusions about the proliferation of discourses and locational differences. This research step was then followed by so-called “helicopter interviews“.
In figure three this process is further illustrated and explained what exactly led to shifted foci in the data collection process. The general selection process is further described in chapter 3.3 (data collection).
The case of the city of Potsdam is not particularly included in the illustration since the interview here was conducted with a big gap to data collection processes that lead to this selection. So, although the selection fitted the general research strategy a direct link to previous processes was not given.
In general, the different handling of cities in the research process is related to shifting outcomes of the desk research and the discourse analysis: New discourses and storylines were continuously revealed and plans for the acquisition of electric buses were ongoingly postponed, announced or realized during the time of the research. For example, it appeared from the desk research that the city of Neuruppin shows one of the biggest efforts to acquire electric buses in the federal state of Brandenburg. However, during the research acquisition plans were postponed there and other municipalities with a different share of discourses already started to acquire electric buses.
The analysis of documents and newspaper articles was done before, after and during the conduction of interviews. This research strategy allowed to draw conclusions about the transferability of the findings during and after the analysis with regard to the very local level (document analysis and analysis of newspaper articles of “Märkische Allgemeine”) and the national level in Germany (analysis of newspaper articles of “SPIEGEL”). Moreover, this course of action led to the identification of relevant case study cities since acquisition plans for certain buses were stated in the local newspaper.
27
28
The final research step consisted of the identification of discursive key incidents, the analysis of discursive practices and their interpretation: “[...] one may find a discursive order that governed a particular domain in a particular time. Ideally, one should come up with an account of the discursive structures within a given discussion, as well as an interpretation of the practices, the sites of production that were of importance in explaining a particular course of events.” (Hajer, 2006).
The general research strategy was influenced by an approach that was both deductive and inductive. Theory was used as a start- and endpoint of the research as suggested by Merriam and Tisdell (2015): “All investigations are informed by some discipline-specific theoretical framework that enables us to focus our inquiry and interpret the data. However, this framework is not tested deductively as it might be in an experiment […]“ (p.17).
In table one an overview over the research questions and the chapters where these questions are answered can be found.
Research question Chapter(s) where this research question is answered
How and which discourses and storylines influence the local acquisition of electric buses?
Chapter 5: Analysis
Chapter 6: Conclusion and implications
Do national and local discourses in Germany align with the findings of the discourse analysis in Brandenburg?
Chapter 6.1: National, regional and city discourses on electric buses
Why certain cities are much more ambitious when it comes to the acquisition of/change to electric buses?
Chapter 6.3: Impact factors for an acquisition of electric buses
Chapter 6.4: Impact factors for a non-acquisition of electric buses
Table 1: Overview research questions and related chapters 3.2 Case study design and case selection
A methodical approach that is used in this thesis are comparative case studies (see chapter 5.7). With this strategy it is possible to analyse discourses and contextual variables that influence them in detail. Harrison et al. (2017) describe a case in a case study as a unit which is “[b]ounded by time, space, and activity“ (p.13) and “[e]ncompasses a system of connections“
29
(p.13). The decisive characteristic is the unit of a case (and not the topic in general) (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015).
Case studies are suitable for doing research in a more holistic and deeper way when researchers are confronted with many contextual variables respectively when “the boundary between the context and issue is unclear“ (Harrison et al., 2017, p.12). As from the desk research it became clear that there are huge differences between cities and counties in Germany concerning the (non-)acquisition of electric buses a high level of contextuality could be assumed. Subsequently, to enhance the transferability and credibility of the outcomes of the following discourse analysis this methodical approach was applied.
For the analysis of multiple cases Merriam and Tisdell (2015) suggest a two-staged analysis. The first level of analysis is the “within-case analysis“ followed by the “cross-case analysis“ (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015). Whereas the first stage focuses on the single case and the identification of contextual variables, the second stage is coined by focusing on abstractions and identifying patterns (categories, themes and typologies) in all of the regarded cases (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015). However, in this research project the case-study approach is used to control contextual variables. Therefore, the “within-case analysis“ followed the discourse respectively “cross-case analysis“ in the order of chapters. With that course of action, it is possible to identify contextual variables that influence processes of (no) policy change and set them into relation to the impact of previously identified discourses.
According to Stake (2006) cases should take account of a diversity of contexts. Also, Flyvbjerg (2006) states that in a selection of cases that is based on information and not happens randomly a selection can be based on maximum variation and paradigmatic cases, on which the research both aims. As Merriam and Tisdell (2015) point out this approach improves reliability and validity, respectively alternative, corresponding measures, of the research: “The more cases included in a study, and the greater the variation across the cases, the more compelling an interpretation is likely to be.” (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015, p.40).
Transferred to the topic of this research project it means to focus on the aspect of acquisition of electric buses. Different stages evolving from this aspect can be distinguished: acquisition of electric buses, planned acquisition, stagnation/no stated interest or stated hesitation for the acquisition.
The selection based on these stages led to cases that are very contrastive (selection of a case study city that wants to acquire electric buses vs. a case where hesitation towards the introduction of electric buses is uttered), paradigmatic (the media analysis showed that the
30
selected cases are reflecting developments also in other counties/cities in Brandenburg) and allowed to reach a relatively high level of saturation of the data collection (however not full saturation, see also chapter seven) over the research process. The relatively high level of saturation was validated by the identification of varied major categories respectively discourses which appeared repeatedly in the data analysis. Moreover, specifications of these (storylines) could be identified and linked to discourses/identified major categories.
Stake (2006) describes four to ten cases as sufficient and doable in such a case study research project. However, due to limitations related to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic the amount of cases and interviews were limited: Two bigger contrastive cases were researched. The case selection was guided by the initial and continuing desk research/ media analysis: In the beginning of 2020 it became clear that Neuruppin is one of the cities in Brandenburg with the biggest efforts to acquire electric buses, however is currently coined by stagnation, whereas certain policy actors and the bus company in the city of Potsdam continuously stated their hesitation to acquire electric buses in local newspapers. The city of Eberswalde was selected due to its long tradition of electric (trolley) bus use and the stated interest of the local bus company to further electrify their bus fleet.
Table two illustrates the case selection in the German federal state of Brandenburg.
Acquisition of electric buses and further development
Planned acquisition of electric buses
Stagnation/No stated interest
Stated hesitation for the acquisition of electric buses Case: City of Eberswalde (3 interviews) Case: City of Neuruppin (6 interviews) Case: City of Neuruppin (6 interviews) Case: City of Potsdam (1 interview) Interviews with: -Case officer transport (county level) -Climate manager Eberswalde
-Head of local bus company Interviews with: -Head of division transport development
Table 2: Theoretical sampling and cases Interviews with:
-Head of county department of construction, order and environment -Case officer transport (county level) -Mobility manager Neuruppin -Head of local bus company -Head of district authority -Attorney electricity company
31 3.3 Data collection
During this research project data was collected via document/media analysis and interviewing. The collection of new data continued until a certain level of saturation was reached:“Saturation is usually explained in terms of ‘when no new categories or relevant themes are emerging.’ [...] researchers must continue data collection until the theory is dense and logical and there are no gaps in the explanations.” (Corbin & Strauss, 2014, p.139).
As Merriam and Tisdell (2015) point out rightly, interviewing allows to get information about how people interpret reality, especially concerning events in the past that are not possible to observe anymore. As the close past is of interest for the reconstruction of storylines and discourses on electric buses and related decision-making processes, interviews are of major importance for this research project. The selection of interviewees followed the approach to find actors that are in decision-making positions concerning the acquisition of electric buses in cities/counties in the German federal state of Brandenburg or actors that are close to them within local administrations and/or bus/electricity companies.
The data collection process started with the conduction of interviews with actors that have an overview over the field (e.g. heads of related local administration departments or climate managers) which allowed to identify more suitable interview partners (cf. Hajer, 2006). Further interview partners were then acquired based on the outcomes of these initial interviews, suggestions of the respondents, the triangulation strategy (described explicitly in chapter 3.5), the general administrative/organizational structure (e.g. not every county/city created the position of a climate/mobility manager) and the overall response to interview requests.
The form of the interview that was applied during this research project was the semi-structured interview: From one side there was a specific set of questions for each interview (see annex one for the questionnaire), on the other side, when it was necessary, questions were asked later or not at all if participants already referred to them.
The interviews were conducted in the time from March to June 2020. In the beginning they were conducted in a face-to-face setting and later via phone (due to restrictions related to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic) and once via email. The theoretical framework and theoretical approaches stated in chapter two informed the questionnaire for the interviews as well as the coding later. A specific overview of the operationalisation related to the questionnaire and the coding process can be found in annex four.
32
The other data collection form was document respectively media analysis. This research step reflects the research question “Do national and local discourses in Germany align with the findings of the discourse analysis in Brandenburg?” and contributes to the triangulation of data collection as well as to the transferability of the findings as also discourses in other regions of Germany and on a national level were considered.
The collection of documents was guided by the origin, relevance, authenticity and accuracy of the documents (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015). The focus within the document analysis lied on local transport plans (analysis of the transport plans for the counties Barnim and Potsdam-Mittelmark in the German federal state of Brandenburg for the upcoming years) and on the presentation of the electric shuttle “Kranich Express” by the city of Trebbin. Local transport plans are especially relevant for the analysis of discourses on electric buses/mobility as they allow to draw conclusions on the hegemony of discourses in certain counties, in which ways they proliferate and how they affect institutional processes.
The time range in which media articles were analysed stretches from the year 2016 until 2020 with one exception: One analysed media article was written in 2012. This time range is chosen since the electric mobility discourse in Germany started only to focus to a bigger extent also on other means of transport than the car (e.g. on electric buses) from the mid-2010s (Tschoerner-Budde, 2017).
The media analysis focused on the newspapers “Märkische Allgemeine” and “SPIEGEL”. The distribution area of “Märkische Allgemeine” covers mostly the municipalities where the interviews were conducted and gives an impression of the related public discourse concerning electric buses and governance there. Moreover, it has the biggest coverage of all subscribed newspapers in the federal state of Brandenburg (Sprecherhaus, n.d.).
The newspaper “SPIEGEL” was chosen because its online edition has one of the biggest coverages of all national newspapers in Germany which leads to the assumption that it reflects most of the debates in the German public – so, also most of the discourses on electric buses
(Schröder, 2020).
All newspaper articles in the online editions of both newspapers that were related to electric buses were analysed.
An overview of the data collection in the federal state of Brandenburg can be found in figure four.
33
Figure 4: Data collection overview for Brandenburg
(Original picture source: Hagar66, 2009; data source for distribution area of “Märkische Allgemeine“: Madsack Mediengruppe, 2019)
Research-ethical considerations played a major role in conducting the interviews and in the process of data collection in general. Every interviewee had the possibility to fill out a confidentiality form (cf. Kaiser, 2009) (see annex two) which was used by most of the interviewees. With this form they could state which level of confidentiality should be given to them (from being completely anonymized to not anonymized) (cf. Kaiser, 2009). A partly anonymized option (name should not be stated) was chosen by one interviewee in this form. For a better coherence also to the other interviewees then was only referred to with a description of their position and not their name. Moreover, the transcripts of all conducted interviews were sent to the interviewees with the option to change/delete parts of the transcript. Partly transcripts were changed subsequently.
3.4 Data analysis
The research method that was used in this thesis is discourse analysis. In this chapter this method is described with a focus on the specific analysis of discursive units.
It was employed to analyse different traces of regional discourses about transport policy, electric mobility and governance. To analyse, categorize (code) and visualize bigger amounts of qualitative material the program MAXQDA was used.
34
The method of discourse analysis was chosen since it fits the best to the aim of this research project to understand and explore the decision-making processes behind the (non-)acquisition of electric buses. Discourse analysis helps to reveal hidden preconditional forces in relation to contextual factors (Keller, 2011) and by that brighten seemingly blurred political relations. By that, a more coherent and comprehensive understanding of the matter is possible than e.g. with a content analysis that usually not acknowledges contexts, discursive developments as well as power relations and hardly makes the full meaning of text corpora accessible.
In the process of data analysis saturation is a decisive measure: “Only when a researcher has explored each category or theme in some depth, identifying its various properties and dimensions under different conditions, can the researcher say that the research has reached the level of saturation.“ (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015). In the end of the analysis “organized descriptive accounts, themes, or categories that cut across the data, or […] models and theories that explain the data“ (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015) and related storylines and discourses should have been identified. The overarching goal of the analysis in this research project is to point out common structural elements, interpretative patterns respectively narrative structures/topoi within the discursive units (Keller, 2011).
As mentioned at the beginning of this subchapter, discourses consist of a lot of parts - discursive units. Those units together form a discourse: “Texts are not meaningful individually; it is only through their interconnection with other texts, the different discourses on which they draw, and the nature of their production, dissemination, and consumption that they are made meaningful.“ (Hardy & Philipps, 2002, p.4). Also, Foucault (1981) stresses the importance of those interrelations and the “communication” of discourses themselves. For Keller (2011) the main difference between discourse analysis and other qualitative research methods is where consistent structures of meaning are located. Within discourse analyses those structures are not (or very unlikely) to find in one text or interview but in an agglomeration of many texts respectively discursive units (Keller, 2001).
Discourses are “practices of talking and writing” (Hardy & Philipps, 2002, p.3) and a power that produces, or constitutes (Keller, 2011), social realities: “Discourse analysis […] tries to explore how the socially produced ideas and objects that populate the world were created in the first place and how they are maintained and held in place over time.” (Hardy & Phillips, 2002, p.6). The main question in discourse analysis is why and how then these views on reality are perceived as objective or real by different actors and why other views on reality are excluded. With the application of the discourse analytical approach of Hajer (1995) these
35
relations can be unveiled. Particularly it means to identify discourses, the discourse coalitions behind as well as related storylines (cf. chapter 2.1) that sustain it, to link these storylines systematically to discourses and analyse the interrelationships of these discourses as well as storylines (cf. Hajer, 1995). Furthermore, it means to showcase the practices to which certain discourses lead and how discourses arrive at a position where they can exercise power: how discourses became eventually hegemonic and institutionalised (cf. Hajer, 1995).
The analysis in this study was guided by the following questions which are based on the methodological approaches of Corbin and Strauss (2014), Fairclough (2003), Hajer (1995), Keller (2011) and Merriam and Tisdell (2015). The following analytical questions are related to specific parts of the main research question of this thesis which are put in bold above them. “[W]hich discourses and storylines influence the local acquisition of electric buses?“
● Which storylines can be identified and to which discourses they are related to? ● Who are the carriers (discourse coalitions) of these discourses?
● What are the specific, coining characteristics and main foci of the identified discourses and storylines?
“How [...] discourses and storylines influence the local acquisition of electric buses?“ ● How and where the identified discourses proliferate?
● Which role certain events (e.g. acquisition of new buses) play for these discourses and their proliferation?
● Have the identified discourses become hegemonic and institutionalised; and if yes, how? To which practices are the discourses leading?
● (How the identified discourses are legitimized?)
● Which linguistic and symbolic means are employed to (re-)produce discourses (e.g. role of assumptions, implicit exclusion of certain meanings)?
● Do the identified discourses, respectively their carriers, refer to other discourses; and if yes, how?
Fairclough (2003) highlights especially the importance of excluded meaning in texts: “It is clear […] that meaning-making depends upon not only what is explicit in a text but also what is implicit – what is assumed.” (Fairclough, 2003). Excluded meaning in texts can be revealed e.g. by comparisons among different discursive units which are related to different discourses
