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A critical discourse analysis

Author:

Jasper Ravestijn

Student number:

10441107

Supervisor:

Federico Savini

Co-reader:

Mendel Giezen

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Title: Amsterdam Circular A critical discourse analysis

Keywords: urban political ecology, critical discourse analysis, power, circularity, sustainability, urban metabo-

lism, discourse

Author: J.J. (Jasper) Ravestijn Commissioned by: University of Amsterdam

Faculty of Societal and Behavioral Sciences (FMG) Master Urban and Regional Planning

Oudezijds Achterburgwal 237

1012 DL Amsterdam

Tel. +31(0)20 52 55 820 Supervisor

Amsterdam: dr. F. (Federico) Savini Co-reader

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Preface

“Practice what you cannot do, not what you already can!” Someone once told me that, without him even personally knowing me, or me knowing him. Ever since, it is a quote that won’t leave my head for some reason. In a way it is a very paradoxical sentence: the more experience I get in my life, the more appropriate it seems to be. It is applicable to my personal life, my professional career as an urban planner, and also to the path I walked as a student urban planning. This masterthesis is an end product of a period in which I learned everything I know right now about urban planning, and I am conscious that this knowledge is still very limited. It is bounded as well, as there are so many perpectives to approach urban planning and I only know about some of them. With that being said, I tried to bring my knowledge and interests together in the product you are reading. Over the years I figured what interested me the most in the field or urban planning. It is not so much sustainability, or circularity in particular as the title of this thesis might reveal to the reader. It is much more the politics of planning and the uneven distribution of power over society that brings out the best of me - or so to judge by you. I will never forget the first time I finished reading Flyvbjerg’s Rationality and Power. In his final chapter he lists some propositions that seem to be true for many more cases besides his case Aalborg in Denmark. Institutions that are supposed to represent what they themselves call the ‘public interest’ were revealed to be deeply embedded in the hidden exercise of power and the protection of special interests. Francis Bacon once stated that ‘Knowledge is power’, as this thesis indeed reveals. However, and very important in contemporary planning, what is in fact also true is that ‘Power is knowledge’. Power determines what counts as knowledge, what kind of interpretation attains authority as the dominant interpretation. Power procures the knowledge which supports its purposes, while it ignores or suppresses that knowledge which does not serve it. Moreover, the relations between knowledge and power are decisive if one seeks to understand the kinds of processes affecting the dynamics of politics, administration, and planning. There is a long tradition from Thucydides over Machiavelli and Nietzsche to Foucault for providing such an understanding. Every urban planner reading this will know a certain ‘Aalborg story’ from his or her own experience. It is not my intention just to provide ‘another Aalborg story’. Instead, what I have tried to do is to shed light on the processes of the transition towards a circular economy for two projects in Amsterdam: The Port of Amsterdam and The Ceuvel. The central question being how discourses embedded in policy documents reflect power structures in the municipality of Amsterdam.

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foto van haven

or another to this thesis. First of all, I would like to thank Bas Hissink-Muller from the University of Amsterdam for always helping out on the methodologies of doing research. As always, he was also this time prepared to help me out on the subtleties of doing a critical discourse analysis. Second, I would like to thank all the interviewees for taking the time to talk to me about this research project. Some of them were able for personal interviews, some of them have answered my questions briefly, and others responded via mail or telephone. Third, my coworkers that supported me in writing this thesis and my colleague Guido Wallagh in particular, for giving me the time to spend some extra attention on my study while there were many other things to be done in the office. Finally, last but certainly not least, my supervisor from the University of Amsterdam Federico Savini. I know from first-hand experience how important it is to have a supervisor that really takes the time to help you out on difficult aspects of the thesis, and that is willing to think with you on how to improve your final document. Both his written work as well as his supervision taught me a lot: about my research, about politics, but also about urban planning in general. One of the most important things I recently learned, is that doing research is all about making choices. As Federico himself told our thesis group in the first plenary meeting: “Writing a thesis is like going to the supermarket to cook yourself a pasta: you have to choose what kind of pasta, what type of sauce and what kind of vegetables you want...”. Making clear-cut choices is a difficult task when you want to discover something new, when you want to contribute to something ‘out there’. Taming your ambitions is part of the learning process that is called ‘Writing a master thesis’. This research is something I have never done before, as I practice the things I cannot yet do. I hope I managed to do so at a certain level, and that those who read this document learn as much from it as I have done the last few months.

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Summary | Sintesi | Samenvatting

Introduction

Theoretical Framework

Research Design & Methods

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Discussion & Conclusions

Literature

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page

Summary Sintesi Samenvatting 12

Part 1 Introduction 20 Problem Statement Thesis Aims Relevance Reading Guide Theoretical Framework 26 Urban Metabolism Urban Political Ecology Power

Critical Discourse Analysis

Research Design & Methods 38

Research design Case study Case selection

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Port of Amsterdam The Ceuvel Analysis 53 Policy documents Port of Amsterdam The Ceuvel Part 3

Discussion & Conclusions 76

Case specific conclusions General conclusions Reflection

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Amsterdam was the first global city to publish a document based on the circular econo-my. This event was pushed by macro, micro and meso-level influences. At the macro scale the global climate agreements raised the agenda for more local publicity on this subject. At the micro scale, small circular initiatives that took place within the city gained more and more attention. At the meso-level, Amsterdam installed a new municipal board of councilors and aldermen. This new city council was more oriented to the left - environ-ment, sustainability – than the preceding one due to the new members from the Green-Left party. This lead the municipality to publish five documents based on sustainability and circularity within two years (2015-2016), together more than 200 pages.

This thesis tried to reveal what results have been achieved in the field of circularity fol-lowing the publications of these documents. It focused therefore on two projects within the city of Amsterdam: the Port of Amsterdam and The Ceuvel. Instead of analyzing what practical results have been realized, this thesis argued that power, hidden in discourses, played a significant role in the way these two projects are developed (or have been de-veloping). To get a deeper understanding of these processes, the main research question that was posed was: How do discourses on circularity reflect changing political power structures in Amsterdam? To answer this question, a critical discourse analysis has been deployed, set in an urban political ecology framework using Steven Lukes’ description of the concept of power (three faces of power). To get a full understanding of both cases, written sources – e.g. policy documents, news articles, publicly published interviews – and interviews have been used for the analytical framework. This resulted in two differ-ent stories, or discourses.

For the Port of Amsterdam, the transition towards a circular economy is only slowly get-ting started. Many discursive elements have been used in both policies as well in inter-views that frame circularity as the ultimate goal, a predominantly positive concept that should be strived for. However, when legal, cultural and financial aspects are taken into account, many different versions and interpretations of the concept seem to exist, what results in the exercise of power by some that affect ‘Others’ negatively in the case of the Port of Amsterdam.

For The Ceuvel, the transition towards a circular development went differently. Due to macro-pressures (e.g. the economic crisis of 2008) large scale developers retreated from risky investments and the municipality did not have the money at the time to take on the

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for 10 years. They came up with an innovative idea to exploit the landsite and to clean it at the same time. This idea became a movement of like-minded actors that grew in power. It resulted in a bottom-up project to redevelop greater Buiksloterham in a circular fashion. When the movement started growing and gaining more power, all the municipality could do was follow and facilitate. When the economy restored and the municipality noticed that there was money to be made in Buiksloterham, they intervened and took on the lead-ing role again in Buiksloterham. The Ceuvel is still a school example of how bottom-up developments and circularity can go hand in hand.

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Amsterdam è stata la prima città globale a pubblicare un documento basato sull’economia circolare. Questo è evento è stato sollecitato da influenze di livello macro, micro e meso. Su scala macro gli accordi globali sul clima hanno sollevato azioni di maggior pubblicità sul soggetto. Su scala micro, piccole iniziative circolari che hanno avuto luogo all’interno della città hanno guadagnato sempre più attenzione. A livello meso, Amsterdam ha inse-diato un nuovo consiglio municipale di assessori e consiglieri. Questo nuovo consiglio comunale era più orientato a sinistra – ambiente, sostenibilità – rispetto al precedente e questo era dovuto ai nuovi membri appartenenti al partito GreenLeft. Questo ha portato la municipalità a pubblicare cinque documenti basati sulla sostenibilità e circolarità en-tro due anni (2015-2016), in totale più di 200 pagine.

Questa tesi ha lo scopo di cercare di rivelare i risultati che sono stati raggiunti nel campo della circolarità in seguito alla pubblicazione di questi documenti. Si concentra, quindi, su due progetti della città di Amsterdam: il Porto di Amsterdam e il Ceuvel. Piuttosto che analizzare i risultati pratici che sono stati realizzati, questa tesi discute come potere, nascosto nelle discussioni, abbia giocato un ruolo significativo nel modo in cui questi due progetti sono stati sviluppati (o si stanno sviluppando). Per ottenere una comprensione più profonda di questi processi, la principale domanda di ricerca che è stata posta è stata: In che modo le discussioni sulla circolarità riflettono il cambiamento delle strutture di potere politico ad Amsterdam? Per rispondere a questa domanda, è stata messa in atto un’analisi critica della discussione, all’interno di un modello di ecologia politica urbana usando la descrizione del concetto di potere di Steven Lukes (le tre facce del potere). Per avere una comprensione completa in entrambi i casi, sono state usate per il modello analitico sia fonti scritte – es. documenti politici, articoli d’informazione, interviste pub-blicate – che interviste. Questo ha avuto come esito due storie, o discussioni, differenti. Per quanto riguarda il Porto di Amsterdam, la transizione verso un’economia circolare sta solo lentamente prendendo il via. Sia nelle politiche che nelle interviste sono state us-ate molte argomentazioni che designano la circolarità come obiettivo finale, un concetto prevalentemente positivo che bisognerebbe impegnarsi a raggiungere. Ad ogni modo, quando entrano in gioco gli aspetti legali, culturali e finanziari, sembrano esistere molte differenti versioni e interpretazioni del concetto, e il risultato è l’esercizio del potere da parte di qualcuno che influenza ‘Altri’ in modo negativo nel caso del Porto di Amsterdam. Per quanto concerne il Ceuvel, la transizione verso uno sviluppo circolare è andata diver-samente. A causa delle pressioni macro (es. la crisi economica del 2008) gli sviluppatori su larga scala si sono ritirati dagli investimenti rischiosi e la municipalità non ha avuto

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lasciato a morire. Fino a quando un gruppo di giovani professionisti ha preso in affitto il sito per 10 anni. Hanno avuto un’idea innovativa per sfruttare quel luogo e per pulirlo allo stesso tempo. Quest’idea è diventata un movimento i cui attori avevano idee simili e hanno accresciuto il loro potere. Ha avuto come risultato un progetto dal basso per ricon-vertire una Buiksloterham migliore in modo circolare. Quando il movimento ha iniziato a crescere e a ottenere maggior potere, tutto ciò che la municipalità ha potuto fare è stato seguire e facilitare. Quando l’economia si è ripresa e la municipalità si è resa conto che si poteva guadagnare da Buiksloterham, sono intervenuti e hanno assunto il ruolo di guida nuovamente a Buiksloterham. Il Ceuvel è ancora un esempio che fa scuola di come gli sviluppi dal basso e la circolarità vanno di pari passo.

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Amsterdam was de eerste stad wereldwijd die met beleid op het gebied van circularite-it kwam. Dcircularite-it kwam onder meer door macro, micro en mesoniveau invloeden. Op mac-roschaal waren er de grote klimaatakkoorden die ervoor zorgen dat duurzaamheid en circulariteit hoger op de agenda kwamen te staan. Op microschaal waren er in de stad circulaire initiatieven aan de gang die steeds meer aandacht kregen. Op het mesoniveau was er de komst van een nieuw gemeentebestuur met meer aandacht voor duurzaamheid. In twee jaar tijd leidde dit tot de publicatie van vijf beleidsdocumenten op het gebied van duurzaamheid en circulariteit, bij elkaar meer dan 200 pagina’s. Deze thesis heeft getracht te onderzoeken wat het resultaat van deze beleidsdocumenten is: wat heeft het gebracht? Het onderzoek heeft zich gericht op twee projecten in Amsterdam: de Haven van Amsterdam en De Ceuvel. In plaats van de letterlijke resultaten op te nemen en te onderzoeken, is gekeken naar de machtsstructuren en –relaties die invloed hebben ge-had op de daadwerkelijke uitkomsten van deze twee projecten. Daarvoor is in deze thesis gebruikgemaakt van een kritische discourse analyse, welke zich focust op de (oneerlijke) machtsrelaties en hoe dit zijn weerslag heeft in de praktijk. Om het concept machtsrelat-ies te operationaliseren is het raamwerk van Lukes gebruikt. Het onderzoek naar de twee projecten heeft geleid tot twee verschillende discoursen.

In de Haven van Amsterdam komt de transitie naar een circulaire economie langzaam op gang. Veel discursieve elementen worden gebruikt in zowel geschreven tekstbronnen als in interviews om te verdedigen waarom er in de haven weinig gebeurt wat betreft de circulaire economie. Circulariteit wordt gebruikt als hegemoniaal begrip, als ultiem einddoel, en omschreven als iets uitermate positiefs. Maar wanneer het aankomt op de financiële, culturele en juridische aspecten blijkt dat er veel interpretaties en ideeën over de circulaire economie bestaan. Macht – power – wordt gebruikt door actoren om hun eigen ideeën op te leggen aan de ontvangers van de teksten. Zodoende worden, bewust of onbewust, de preferenties van deze ontvangers aangepast ten behoeve van de machtige actoren.

In het geval van De Ceuvel is de transitie anders gegaan. Op een voormalig verlaten en vervuild stuk land bleven ontwikkelingen door de economische crisis uit. Daarnaast had de gemeente het geld niet om deze plek te ontwikkelen. Een groep architecten en ontwik-kelaars die door de crisis thuis zaten pakten dit op en leaseden het grondgebied voor 10 jaar. Met hun circulaire idee trokken zij veel bekijks en hun groep vormde zich tot een beweging welke snel groeide in aanhang en invloed. Uiteindelijk wisten zij ervoor te

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zor-draad van ontwikkelaar weer op en zakte de invloed van de circulaire beweging langzaam weg. Vandaag de dag is De Ceuvel nog steeds een schoolvoorbeeld voor bottom-up initi-atieven en circulaire gebiedsontwikkeling.

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Introduction

Theoretical Framework

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P

ower has been an elusive concept in social sciences, political sciences, sociological sciences and political philosophy. Academics from all fields use the term as they assume others know exactly what it is or what it means. Searching for a clear description of ‘power’ (apart from the ones in physical sciences), one finds himself easily trapped between endless definitions, all slightly varied; it easily becomes clear that there is no agreement on the generic definition. The field of planning, being multi-disciplinary depending on the kind of planner you are, forms no exception to this. “Nowhere has dealing with the concept of power been more challenging than in the field of planning” (Innes & Booher, 2002: 221 emphases added). There is a shared idea, however, amongst planners that whatever power may entail, (urban) planners do not have it. Planners see themselves mainly as subject to power, instead of being the object of power. Although there are some world leading planning academics that see this otherwise (Forester, 1989; Throgmorten, 1996), the shared assumption under planners is that planning is either the slave of power (Harvey, 1989) or the victim of power (Flyvbjerg, 1998; Altschuler, 1965). Power has recently become more present in academic papers after it has been ignored, consciously or unconsciously, by those that assumed power does not matter or saw power as such a complicated concept they did not even dare to raise the issue of it. Nowadays power features in all kinds of research, be it case studies (Flyvbjerg, 1998) or research papers (Innes & Booher, 2002). The fact that power is always present in the field of planning seems to be embedded under planning professionals. Power is subject of all kinds of concepts that raised in the field of planning the past decennia, for example in collaborative planning (Healey, 1997), consensus building and role-playing games (Innes & Booher, 1999), urban planning, governance planning (Albrechts et al, 2003) and as this thesis will show in sustainable planning (Swyngedouw, 2010). The fact that power is always present, both in concepts and in practice, makes that every actor must deal with it in one way or another (e.g. municipalities, entrepreneurs, citizens, public servants, the police, planners and so on and so forth). For us, planners, to ignore power is to ignore the very essence of what planning nowadays is all about.

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Where there is power, there is power inequality (Flyvbjerg, 1998). Power inequalities are established, enacted, reconfigured, countered and altered. This thesis uses the framework of Steven Lukes on power: three dimensions of power that can be used – possessed – by actors (or actants). Furthermore, it uses the analytical concept of discourse. One way of how imbalances in power come about is through discourses. By using a critical discourse analysis (CDA), this thesis tries to surface how power imbalances are reflected in municipal policies on sustainability, more specifically on circularity. CDA is also a useful tool to get an understanding of how different actors see – take a stance on – a certain phenomenon. It provides an insight in the power different actors possess, and how they use their power to defend a certain policy, or to enact a counter-discourse to alter the dominant discourse. Or as Van Dijk (1993) puts it, there are many ways to assess power imbalances and power inequality, one of the most useful approaches to study these phenomena is discourse analysis. There are many contemporary urban planning topics that deserve attention using a CDA, but one that is becoming more pressing to study, is that of global climate change. As the academic literature shows, there has been an increase in papers the last decennia aimed at sustainability, sustainable planning and environmental justice planning (Heynen et al, 2006). In society also, attention has shifted from being solely focused on economic growth to a more just, sustainable and equal urban growth paradigm. On a global scale, the Paris Agreement is the most recent example, but also on Dutch national scale global warming and environmental justice issues are becoming ever more important, as the government formation has shown since election day in March this year. Debating over those issues, the political parties (GreenLeft, Liberal Democrats, Democrats 66, Christen Democratic Appeal) cannot seem to form a coalition resulting in a consensus over the environment and sustainability (Groen, 2017).

1.1 Problem statement

Considering global problems and challenges human kind is facing, one of the most relevant subjects to study as a planner nowadays is that of urban environmental change, environmental degradation and the threats this poses to us urbanists and society in general. The recent Paris Agreement is probably the most relevant example of this need. More than half the world’s population lives in cities nowadays, and this number is growing fast with all its consequences for those living in cities (e.g. heat stress, reduced water infiltration, increased particulate matters like CO2) but also for those not living in the cities (e.g. increased particulate matters due to increased transport of food and goods to cities, resulting in more emissions and thus a warming climate, leading to decreasing diversity of flora and fauna, and so on and so forth). In short, the ongoing urbanization causes the environment to change more rapidly than ever before and it is thus up to city municipalities and city planners to meet conditions that mitigate the ongoing climate

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change. Fortunate, this observation is not new to cities and their leaders around the world, as one can read and see in daily media and professionals learned from the Brundtland Commission. It is therefore surprising that in the emerging academic literature on environmental change and sustainability, the ‘urban’ part is often left out while focusing on the ‘global’ problems of climate change. Similarly, urban studies literature neglects the fact that urbanization processes rest upon the physical-environmental eco-foundations. Following the diverse climate conferences and reports (Tokyo, Paris, Copenhagen, Durban and many more) cities across the world developed sustainability agendas that were aimed at increasing sustainability and decreasing environmentally damaging activities. For example, Amsterdam, the capital of The Netherlands with more than 800.000 inhabitants on 200 square kilometers: after initiating the sustainability agenda in 2015, the municipality came up with the Circular Amsterdam document and following the latter came the Circular Innovation Program. The Amsterdam municipality sees the transition towards a circular economy, as opposed to the current linear system, as one of many aspects that should be strived for considering sustainable development and sustainability in general. However, even though Amsterdam was the world’s first city to present its Amsterdam Circular! document, many initiatives, experiments and proposals to push the transition towards a circular economy are not realized, facilitated or supported. There are both overt and covert powers at play that influence what is in fact done to stimulate circularity in Amsterdam.

1.2 Thesis aims

This thesis, in using a multi-level definition of the concept of power, tries to surface the effects power has on the discourses regarding sustainable urban planning and urban climate change experiments that promote circularity. By making use of the urban political ecology framework, it sets out how uneven power relations define which urban climate change experiments aimed at the transition towards a circular economy transcend from being a niche experiment to mainstream daily praxis, and how other seemingly valuable experiments are kept of the political agenda and testing fields. These urban climate change experiments, as described by Castán Broto and Bulkeley, are both prone to power relations, as well as power-giving. While the first suggests that they are dependent on power relations in becoming more than a niche, the latter suggests that experiments can give power to the powerless in complex urban political structures (Healey & Gonzalez, 2005). In other words, power relationships shape urban flows: they define the urban metabolism, be it linear or circular. Urban climate change experiments, as governance innovation, niches in a protected market or as living laboratories have the power to change daily practices in urban elitist regimes. They are capable of influencing policy as stated by municipalities and they reflect changing power structures. Healey and Gonzalez

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speak of this as innovative governance capacity. While there are clear cut reasons why current elitist regimes maintain control over resources (as they reproduce structures of power) urban climate change experiments may subvert existing regimes, both materially and socially. As Davis puts it, “these processes occur in the realms of power in which social actors strive to defend and create their own environments in a context of class … and power struggles” (Davis 1996, in Heynen et al, 2006:4) This research answers multiple questions concerning power, politics and the ecology of cities. The main research question is ‘How do discourses on circularity reflect changing political power structures in Amsterdam?’

1.3 Relevance

Part of the societal relevance of such a research is briefly outlined above. Urban areas are particularly prone to the effects of climate change. Not only do they form the largest potential risk in case of a disaster (due to the density of people and functions), they are also the site where new initiatives rise because of the pressing need (due to the rundown of fossil fuels and, for example, heat stress) as opposed to rural self-sufficient areas. With more people expected to live in cities, the linear city-systems need to change fast do they want to house more people and be sustainable in the future. There is also a more local relevance. As discourses on urban and economic growth, sustainability and circularity changed, many actors have tried to contribute to a more sustainable city. However, some actors have seen their efforts fail due to some sort of uneven power distribution. There is also an academic relevance to this research. Although climate change and mitigation and adaptation strategies are widely elaborated on in academic papers (see for example Biesbroek et al, 2009), not much has been written about how power structures influence policies on circularity and impact on eventual outcomes of such policies. One exception to this, and one very famous contribution to this topic has been the account of Aalborg by Bent Flyvbjerg (1998). Assuming there are more of such accounts, few have explicitly used the concept of power in an urban political ecology framework and urban metabolism in relation to urban climate change experiments. As Castán Broto and Bulkeley suggest in their seminal work on urban climate change experiments, more research need to be done in the field of experimental urban design and power. As such, this research fills a certain gap, be it only marginally.

1.4 Reading guide

This thesis follows a classical scientific structure. Starting with a theoretical framework in the next section, theories on urban political ecology (UPE), power in social sciences and discourses are elaborated upon. Then, the methods of how this research is conducted are discussed, before moving on to the empirical part, where the gathered data will be

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analyzed. The final part consists of a feedback section, where the empirical data is linked with the theories, a discussion and some concluding arguments.

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In scientific research you sometimes have to study something intangible, something indirect, look for an index (Durkheim).

The questions: who is deciding upon what is decided? How is the agenda controlled? We have to leave that problem to the philosopher… (Bachrach & Baratz).

In explaining his third dimension of power: Power is at its most effective when it’s least observable and perceptible (Lukes, 1974).

This thesis is set in an urban political ecology framework: a school of critical urban political-environmental research (Heynen et al, 2006). The work of Kaika, Swyngedouw and Heynen provide the fundaments of this research. When urban political ecology, or political ecology in general is used, I refer to the definition used by those three academics described in, among others, In the Nature of Cities (Heynen et al, 2006). A recurring concept that will be used often is the concept of urban metabolism. The analogy of using a biophysical term to describe a social process was first used by Wirth (1938), but became more mainstream after Marx’s description when he complemented it with the notion of a ‘metabolic rift’. In relation to this latter concept, the concept of circularity, as briefly explained in the introduction will be one of the main concepts. In a circular economy material cycles are closed by following the example of natural ecosystems: in a perfect circular world there is no waste, as ‘waste’ (output) forms the input for a new cycle (Ellen MacArthur in Antikainen & Valkokari,2016). Next to circularity and metabolism, one of the main concepts is power. Using, describing and applying the concept of power in social sciences is a challenging venture. To avoid getting lost in the endless definitions and operationalization academics have given to power, I use a definition that has proven its value for many researchers in the field of urban planning. However, it is quite useful for both me as a researcher and you as a critical reader to get an understanding of how I have come to a definition to use for this thesis. Finally, some notions are made regarding

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Theoretical

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the framework of Castán Broto and Bulkeley on urban climate change experiments. Experiments are an interesting case to study because they tell us what power plays are present, be it directly (as agenda-setting) or indirectly (to deflect attention from them). Instead of elaborating as much as possible on the above-mentioned theories, I tried to give a concise overview of how these theories are used in the following research. To conclude this theoretical part, the concept of discourse is elaborated upon. It will be the method of data-analysis and as I will use a critical discourse analysis, some proclamations are in place.

2.1 Urban Metabolism

Louis Wirth opened his 1938 article “Urbanism as a way of life” with the quote that “nowhere has mankind been farther removed from organic nature than under the conditions of life characteristic of great cities” (Wirth, 1938:1-2). This statement is a historically sentimental one but, as this theoretical framework will show, also wrong. Indeed, it expressed the society-nature opposition: the idea that these two words, namely ‘nature’ and ‘city’ form the outer ends of a spectrum. However, as the following historical intellectual analysis will show, nature is as much present in cities as it is elsewhere. Told via the concept of Urban Metabolism, this urban-nature opposition and the way we have seen this antithesis has evolved over time. This line of thought follows Wachsmuth’s analysis of the ‘three ecologies’ (Wachsmuth, 2012). The term metabolism was first used at the beginning of the 19th century to describe chemical changes within cells. Within the next 50 years it was widespread used in biology and biochemistry to explain processes of recomposing cells (Fischer-Kowalski, 1998). Not much later, it was also used to more holistic conceptions of ecosystem relations (Foster, 1999). It was in this register that Karl Marx introduced the concept in social sciences to describe human transformation of nature through the force of labor, and later to explain the capitalist system through commodity exchange (Marx, 1964). Marx was also the first to question the mainstream idea of the separation between society and nature:

“What requires explanation is not the unity of living and active human beings with the natural, inorganic conditions of their metabolism with nature … What we must explain is the separation of these inorganic conditions… (Marx, 1964:86)”

Marx referred to this nature-society divide as a ‘metabolic rift’, which has later been elaborated by Foster (2000) and other scholars. This term - metabolic rift - “enable[ed] [Marx] to develop a critique of environmental degradation that anticipated much of present-day ecological thought” (Foster, 2000: 142), including questions about sustainability. This rift, or divide between nature and society has been of interest of the ‘three ecologies’ – human, industrial and political – ever since. The origins of this rift, that the societal realm is one external to the realm of nature, can be found in the social

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transformations brought by the industrial revolution (Wachsmuth, 2012). During this period, the domination of nature by human forces was legitimated, just like socially produced injustices as inequality, imperialism and war (Cronon, 1995; Smith, 2008). In other words, the city became to occupy the socially decisive position at the end of the 19th century, even though still most of England’s population (where the Industrial Revolution started) lived in rural areas or smaller villages (Spirn, 1985). The contradistinction between nature and society is thus an urban phenomenon. Swyngedouw’s concept of urban metabolism borrows from Marx’s definition as the transformation of nature by human labor; a creative and social process. However, to avoid the traps of the dichotomy urban-nature that the other ecologies fall for, Swyngedouw introduces the concept of “socio-nature”: relying on the existence of nature in the social realms. All the features of a modern urban society are based on this socio-nature, whether we talk about the production of dams, engineering buildings, or the cultivation of lands (Swyngedouw, 2006). Erik Swyngedouw focuses in his studies on water particularly, and while he agrees with the industrial ecologists that resources flow through cities – and are metabolized – he adds political, economic and cultural dimensions to it, while Wolman, Girardet and others did not. In Swyngedouw’s version of urban metabolism, the city itself is a result of this metabolism due to the social processes that are in play. Whereas industrial ecologists see the city as an independent actor where nature is converted into commodities. As Swyngedouw et al. in Wachsmuth (2012) put it “… urban political ecology gives a process-oriented account of metabolism that emphasizes the interplay of local, regional, and global socio-natures in constituting any specific city or urban space” (Heynen, Kaika and Swyngedouw, 2006:5). In short, urban political ecologists explore historical struggles too that made the socio-nature landscape in the urban setting, and the different environmental impacts this has on different classes and groups within the contemporary city (Gandy, 2003). With this they – the urban political ecologists – have overcome many of the shortcomings of human ecology and industrial ecology. This thesis uses the urban political ecology framework for conducting research. The research is thus set in a “new ecological paradigm”, which incorporates nature as part of society, as opposed to the “human exemptionalist paradigm” which holds human society to be apart from nature (Catton & Dunlap, 1980).

2.2 Urban metabolism and urban political ecology

One of Marx’s critique – using the term metabolic rift – referred to the way how inequalities are justified by exploiting nature. A dominant framework trying to explain the political aspects of the nature-society divide is that of urban political ecology. To elaborate on the framework of urban political ecology, it is useful to start with the emergence of political ecology (PE, without the urban to it). Political ecology can be briefly summarized

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as the study of the politics of environmental degradation (Wachsmuth, 2012). PE is a new way of understanding environmental problems. Instead of seeing environmental problems from their bio-physical perspective, PE sees them differently. In their essence, environmental problems are problems of distribution and problems of the exercise of political and economic power. There are always winners and losers with environmental change and the question is: who has the power to benefit from environmental change and who has the power to externalize the costs of environmental change to others. PE is basically addressing the way society and the economy is relating to the environment. PE tries to show that the increased metabolism of the economy, resource extraction and waste disposal creates conflicts; social and environmental. Conflicts arise from environmental burdens that are unequally distributed over the population. PE creates a network that is aware that there are major significant environmental issues that need to be addressed. Many of those are around questions of justice, questions of inequality, around the distribution of power. The knowledge production of scientists active in the field of PE is used to produce knowledge to enable change, enable transformation and ‘power the powerless’. Another way of ‘powering the powerless’ is through urban climate change experiments, as will be discussed later.

In an ideal world, the political should be redundant from this term, because ecology can only be political (Kaika, 2005). Science produces knowledge, but the way this knowledge is put into praxis is always and can only be a political question. Think of the question what is nature, whatever the answer, it is always political. Depending on the answer you give to this question, you consciously or unconsciously allowing yourself with political praxis, political thought and political understandings of the world around us. One takes political position by answering the seemingly simple question of what is nature. For example, if you start thinking about answering this question in the sense that “nature is this higher more ecological order, it is something to be protected, it is something to be cherished, something to look up to”, then you are allowing yourself a political thinking praxis that is linked to the ecology. If, by contrast to the question what is nature one answers “it’s a frontier that needs to be further conquered, an endless source of resources that we can tap upon”, then you allow yourself a different understanding of nature, and a very different political praxis of the way human society engages nature (Kaika, 2005). So, any question related to ecology, is and can only be political. Take for example the term natural disaster. We understand them as the act of nature. As if nature was the executor and not the victim. For a political ecology framework, natural disasters are always the result of a socio-economic production of nature and of the way we manage the relationships between society and the environment. When a natural disaster occurs, it creates a shock. It is a shock to our imaginary Western societies that we can expand the

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production and consumption of resources (Kaika, 2003). The commons and the way of administering the nature society relation, and as a way of managing resources allocation, carries a very heavy intellectual political baggage. The commons and the allocation of resources is not bad or good per se. It is a political question. It is about creating a new set of social imaginaries that depict the role and aim of our society.

Then urban political ecology: why urban? What is so special or unique about cities that we should offer them a special place within the political ecology agenda. Apart from the obvious fact that more than half the world’s population lives in cities, there are several less obvious but equally important reasons to focus on the urban within the political ecology framework. The fact that more than 70% of the world’s population is estimated to live in cities by 2050 is in fact an important factor, but there are more profound reasons. Cities are also depicted, in parallel to other depictions – just like nature – as cultural and environmental resources. They can be more environmentally friendly because they are compact structures, they offer great economies of scale, they enable efficient use and distribution of resources. Cities are also generative forces for environmental movements (Healey and Gonzalez, 2005). It is inside cities where one can hear the loudest voices promoting better environmental protection. One could almost speak of schizophrenic depictions of nature and cities. Nature as a higher order to be preserved, nature as a resource that need to be conquered further. Cities as tumors on the world landscape, cities as compact structures that enable environmental protection, etcetera. In the previous quotes, there is the possibility to go beyond this conundrum of nature and cities. By conceptualizing the relationship between nature and the city, urban political ecology tries to get away from this dualism and offers an analysis that contributes to a better understanding of the interconnected processes that lead to uneven urban developments and environments across the world. So, urban political ecology advocates that we cannot understand or address urban problems without understanding and addressing environmental problems and vice versa. It is impossible to understand cities without looking underneath and outside cities to all the intricate networks of technology, human labor, capital investment and natural resources that bring the urban together and make it function the way it does, relatively smoothly most of the time. Indeed Jacobs, 1996, depicts that urban environments are as natural as elephants. Harvey even claims that there is nothing unnatural about New York. And if you think about it, everything you see around us is nature transformed, commodified, with the input of human labor, technology and capital investment. All the bricks that make up a building is created with nature, human labor and capital investment. The same is a steel framework of a skyscraper, the pavement we walk on every day. It is all nature and yet it is not. It is nature that has been transformed and produced through human labor and technology. But on the other hand

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of this spectrum, there is nothing entirely natural about a park for example. If you think of every single urban park that comes to your mind. in order to produce this as urban nature, and in order to maintain the park looking natural, it takes a daily input of human labor and capital and resources. Simply to make it look natural and park like (Smith and Lefebvre, Harvey). UPE framework tries to move away from this dualism from nature and city. The whole history of planning ideas and praxis is a history of ideas that try to reconceptualize and to retweak the relationship between cities and nature. So, the key question the UPE framework asks, is how does the city and nature relationship involve in human history. What are the power relations involved in the reconceptualization of this relationship between nature and city during each particular historical period? Who decides every given historical moment, and every given geographical location, who decides what constitutes a good urban environment and what not. Who wins and who loses out of these decisions (Kaika, 2003).

2.3 Power in urban political ecology

One recurring concept used in the urban political ecology framework is power. Urban political ecologists argue that unequal power relations cause some to experience the environmental burdens of urbanization, while others seem to profit. Explaining the concept of power, is putting yourself in a contested field of research. Not only are there many definitions and usages of the concept of power, there are also many discussions in the academic field on how to use one or another concept best and what a certain definition lacks in contrast to another. In social sciences in particular, power knows many definitions starting from Marxist definitions considering the economic base of capitalism as the source of power to Foucault’s definition of power as a discourse. Using power in a research is all about making choices where the researcher is unable to find the ‘ideal’ definition filling in all the gaps. This paragraph is about explaining the definition of power that will be used in this research, whereas the ‘methods’ section accounts for a justification of this usage in contrast to others. The task is to find or define a definition of power that suits the urban political ecology framework best. As such, it is of key importance to scan the field of power in existing research to be able to make clear cut choices. For this, a more sociological lens is used, as the discipline of urban planning uses many definitions from the field of sociology. Instead of going back to Weber’s definition of power, I focus on the theory on power as elaborated by Steven Lukes. In his Power: a radical view (1974) he describes power as having three faces. John Locke once said that power and change are intimately connected. For Locke, Lukes argues, power was to be able to make and able to receive change. To develop the concept further, we need a more elaborated account. Steven Lukes published his first edition of Power a radical view in 1974. In this work Lukes contrasts the way power operates in government settings versus how it operates in

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a larger societal context. His device for critiquing traditional conceptions of power is by arguing that there is not one, but three dimensions to social power.

Dimension 1: decisions overtly made by main players. The first dimension restricts power to decisions taken by a class of political actors such as politicians, civil servants and lobbyists. It is assumed that power is distributed evenly across various political parties and interest groups. In this scenario, the actors decide the outcome of an issue where there is an observable conflict of interests. What does this mean in practice? Power is exercised through negotiation and bargaining until a decision is reached which is accepted by all parties, even if it was not their preferred outcome. The actor or actors with the power to change are simply those who get their way, and thus ‘win’. As Lukes argued, to summarize this first dimension, “this first, one-dimensional, view of power involves a focus on behavior in the making of decisions on issues over which there is an observable conflict of (subjective) interests, seen as expressing policy preferences, revealed by political participation” (19). Dimension 2: decisions made through influencing values, beliefs and practices. The second dimension focuses on less overt applications of power. Here, Lukes draws our attention to a wide range of factors such as values, beliefs, and institutional procedures that benefit certain individuals or groups at the expense of others, following the work of Bachrach and Baratz. Power is therefore distributed and socialized such that control over political space is established. What does this mean in practice? Power in this second dimension is about controlling the political realm to defend sectional interests – others call this agenda-setting. This control can be maintained by coercion of through buying loyalty – commonly known as bribery. Control can also be consented to by those who are not part of the power elite. If the idea of consenting to a social order that is manifestly unequal seems counter-intuitive, then remember that hierarchies operate in almost all institutions. For example, the family where seniors have more power than juniors. However, according to Lukes, this second face still lacks an important notion. “The trouble seems to be that both Bachrach and Baratz and the pluralists suppose that because power, as they conceptualize it, only shows up in cases of actual conflict, it follows that actual conflict is necessary to power. But this is to ignore the crucial point that the most effective and insidious use of power is to prevent such conflict from arising in the first place” (27). Dimension 3: decisions made collectively and subsequently legitimated. A third dimension of power was articulated by philosopher Hannah Arendt. Power, she argues, corresponds to the human capability to act together. Power is never the property of an individual; it belongs to a group and remains in existence so long as the group keeps together. What does this mean in practice? It means political actors are ‘empowered’ by like-minded group or social movements. Unlike the first two dimensions of power which emphasize power over, the third emphasizes ‘power with’. This form of power is

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grounded in the norms of a political community and needs legitimacy to function. To describe it in Lukes words, the third dimension turns to a different problem -- the fact that actors sometimes act willingly in ways that appear to be contrary to their most basic interests. The third dimension then, are the ways in which the powerful actors transform the interests of the powerless in such a way that the latter behave according to the formers will -- without coercion or forcible constraint. This is what Marx calles a false consciousness. Lukes confirms this concept with the notion that “power is at its most effective when it’s least observable and perceptible” (Lukes, 1974). As we will see in the case studies, there are different types of power and these can either be compatible or in conflict with one another. Each draws attention to different actors, diverse settings and alternative logics. Without an ability to map power, we risk setting our expectations about prospects for change too high, or too low, and we misunderstand where to apply our capability in order to achieve the most change. For example, even elected politicians whose daily business is most easily identifiable with dimension one, also understand that power needs legitimacy to be effective in the long term and to truly create change. If you have the right theoretical framework, you can make power visible where it seemed to be hidden. However, there is very little in Lukes’s description of power that sheds light on the social mechanisms of power. For example, what social features enable an actor to wield influence? Through what institutional setting or context are actors enabled to exercise power over other actors (or actants)? Lukes, in his seminal work, does not address this question, yet it seems to be the most important missing part. Marxism offers one such theory -- power derives from class position; but in the contemporary Western world, this answer doesn’t really satisfy. It seems fair to say that Lukes offers a semantic analysis of the use of the concept of “power”, rather than offering a sociological analysis of the causal and structural reality of power (Lukes, 1974).

2.4 Critical discourse analysis as analytical tool

To fill this gap, the concept of critical discourse analysis (CDA) is useful. In general, CDA studies the relation between discourse, power, dominance, social injustice and inequality. As Teun van Dijk (1993) puts it “(CDA) is primarily interested and motivated by pressing social issues, which it hopes to better understand through discourse analysis” (252). The critical targets of critical discourse analysts are the power elites specifically, and their ‘Others’ that feel oppressed in one way or another. Herein it differs from a general discourse analysis, that could be described as a general semantic research. Researchers conducting a CDA are looking for the structures, strategies and other properties of language – spoken and written, but also covert language – that play a role in (re)producing these inequalities. Moreover, they focus on elitist regimes and their stories on the one hand, and the counter-discourses by the ‘powerless’ on the other. From a

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sociopolitical and discourse-analytical perspective it is tempting to study the relations between power and discourse directly. In many cases this will be effective, as might be when studying directors’ speeches, Alderman statements, or commands from military officers. The same is true when examining style, syntax, rhetoric and deeper meanings of texts aimed at the concealment of (social) power relations “leaving implicit or understating responsible agency of powerful social actors in the events represented in the text” (Van Dijk, 1993:250). These notions are in reality to simplistic. Unequal power relations at the societal level are not (only) (re)produced through individual acts of speech, although this is often the case in parent-children relationships. One can conclude that more conditions must be satisfied, and more properties must contribute for the discourse to (re)produce existing imbalances in (social) power relations. Apparently, these other properties – or conditions – are related to legitimacy and acceptability. One could argue that the missing link between discourses and the dominance of these discourses Is social cognition (Van Dijk, 1993). Neglecting social cognition, operating as ‘interface’ means that discourses are accepted by everyone in the same way, while it is clear that this is not the case in reality. As other aspects besides language are important in a complete critical discourse analysis, the analytical tool is multidisciplinary in its essence and asks not only semantic research skills, but also cultural, historical, societal and sociological skills. Its success is finally measured by the completeness of the discourse. Therefore, it usually takes more time than for example a narrative or content analysis.

A crucial premise for doing a critical discourse analysis is an understanding of the nature of social power and dominance. Once such an understanding has been found, one can begin formulating ideas on how discourses contribute to the production of social power. Clegg (1989), in addition to Lukes, defines social power as power based on access to socially valued resources. These resources can be financial wealth, position, status, knowledge, education, access to groups, force, and so on and so forth. Moreover, in line with critical discourse analysts’ view, access to forms, contexts or various genres of language and communication is also an aspect of social power. Furthermore, Clegg – just like Lukes – sees power as the control that one group has over another. Such control may refer to action –or to prevent action – but also to cognition, that is changing the minds of others for your own interests. In this he refers to Lukes’ second and third dimension of power. It is exactly this notion where discourse and critical discourse analysis come in. Managing other people’s minds is effectively a function of language – be it text, talk or signs. Although not all language is aimed at manipulating other’s minds, many mainly political statements in policy documents are (Fairclough, 1985). On the other side, dominance may also be enacted by everyday subtle routines that appear natural and acceptable. Therefore, CDA focuses on discursive strategies that function to legitimate –

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or naturalize – control in the social order with a particular interest in power inequality. Despite the abovementioned subtleties of CDA research, analysts using this method are mainly interest in the power abuse of power elites. One term that fits this description of power best is ‘dominance’ (Van Dijk, 1993). Dominance by power elites is seldom total in the contemporary social order. It is constantly contested by counter-power, or what could be called ‘challenge’. In this thesis the power elites – government, councilors, alderman, directors of corporates – will be challenged by the group of initiators from the urban climate change experiments in the city of Amsterdam. If the dominant discourse gets accepted by the powerless – the contesters – then we speak of ‘hegemony’ (Lukes third dimension of power). In practice, this – consensus, acceptance and legitimacy – is what discourses look for (Herman and Chomsky, 1988). However, power and dominance need to be institutionalized in culture and society to be effective. This can happen through media, laws, enforcement, routines and so on and so forth. The cultural, political and social aspects of dominance also imply that there is a hierarchy of power: some actors will have more access to discourses than others which makes them more powerful. For the following analysis, it is worthy to note that those elites are the actors who have most to say in official debates. Bourdieu speaks in this setting of ‘symbolic power’. This is why the aspect of ‘access’ is most important in discourse analysis. The ones that form the group of the powerless usually have less access to public debate, policy documents, parliament, etcetera. Access may thus be a way of the elites to prevent counter-discourses to be enacted. In the methods section in the next chapter the indicators of discourse and social power are elaborated upon.

2.5 Linking the frameworks together

How then, finally, do the abovementioned theories and framework link together and form the basis for the empirical part of this thesis. Figure 1 presents an overview of the used frameworks in the form of a conceptual model. What this chapter basically serves to do is to make it possible to analyze the empirical data from the interviews, policy documents, presentations, statements and news articles. It literally forms the framework in which this research is conducted.

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Power

Policies on cir

Amsterdam

Urban Political Ecology

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licies on circularity

Projects in

Amsterdam

Discourses

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T

he purpose of this descriptive and explanatory case study is to discover, describe and understand how power is reflected in policies on circularity by the municipality of Amsterdam, by analyzing two urban climate change experiments and their discourses in this city. Therefore, I assume that there is a certain cohesion between the existence – or non-existence – of climate change experiments, their effectiveness, their discourses and power. The aim of this research is to surface these power relations and explain how they are reflected in municipal policies.

3.1 Case study design

A case study design is chosen to conduct this research. According to Yin (2009) a case study is useful when a researcher has no control over the events he or she wants to study. Furthermore, a single case study provides the opportunity to dive deeper in the context of the subject of research, while multiple case studies in the same time frame would leave the findings to be more general. As Bryman (2012) righteously noted, case study research can either be extensive, where the relation between various variables is researched through comparison between different cases, or it can be intensive, where different variables in one case are researched in-depth. This thesis has the form of the latter because of its exploratory character where in first instance the working of power is identified and secondly, how these unequal power relations shape policies on circularity. Furthermore, an extensive case study would not be possible due to time constraints, resources and complexity of this type of research. Although the case in this research is Amsterdam and its policies on circularity, multiple urban climate change experiments are used to collect and analyze data. These urban climate change experiments are in fact the units of analysis within the case Amsterdam. Because I only focus on one case, I can get a rich understanding of the institutional setting, speak to multiple actors active in this context and provide also a historical overview of (recent) events. A case study design has its flaws too, which will be treated at the end of this chapter.

3

Research Design

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3.2 Case selection

The municipality of Amsterdam was the first city worldwide to publish their Circular City Scan, with the Sustainability Agenda as its predecessor and the Circular Innovation Programma as its successor, on such a scale. As a result of previous investigations on circularity as a way of mitigating climate change, Amsterdam took a leading role in this field of research and experimentation. Because the documents have been published for some time now, it is a logical case to select for conducting this research: what are the results, and how has power played its role in these documents? However, selecting a case is always a combination of pragmatic and substantive reasoning. At first, the case should be in a nearby, familiar region due to time, budget, possibility to visit and culture. Second, the case should encompass one where policies on circularity have been published for a while already. Third, following the second, the case should provide sufficient information – actors should be willing to cooperate, written and spoken resources are available, there are multiple variables to study. These criteria lead to selecting the municipality of Amsterdam as a critical case (Bryman, 2012). However, it may become apparent that the singularity and significance of the case differs at the end of the research, as the case of Aalborg shows in Flyvbjerg’s famous work Rationality and Power (2003). He argued that “if rationality and urban planning were weak in the face of power in Aalborg, then, most likely they would be weak anywhere…” as he found out during his research however, the local Chamber of Industry and Commerce was the most influential face of power in Aalborg. “… instead of a critical case, unwittingly I ended up with an extreme case in the sense that both rationality and power were unusually strong in Aalborg.” Thus, as Bryman (2012) argues, as a researcher you may not always appreciate the nature of your case until you have subjected it to thorough scrutiny. Moreover, as a student at the University of Amsterdam I have encountered many people doing research or working in the field of sustainable urban planning or circularity. This, in combination with my work as an urban planner in Amsterdam lead to the logical choice of using Amsterdam as the case for this thesis. Within this case, I choose two areas to focus the critical discourse analysis on: The Ceuvel in the greater Buiksloterham region, and the Port of Amsterdam, which is still struggling to transform itself into a more sustainable area. Both cases are elaboratednupon in the next chapter to make clear why these cases are chosen, how they differ, and why they are so interesting for this thesis.

3.3 Research questions and hypotheses The main research question in this thesis is:

‘How do discourses on circularity reflect changing political power structures in Amsterdam?’

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To answer this question, multiple secondary questions need to be answered first. These questions can be divided into the following categories:

1. Policies

a. What policies on circularity are published recently by the municipality? b. What is said about The Ceuvel in Buiksloterham and the Port of Amsterdam specifically?

c. Who are the actors/actants behind these policies? 2. Discourses

a. Which dominant discourses and which counter-discourses are enacted in the context of Amsterdam?

b. What are the commonalities and differences regarding the two projects? 3. Power structures

a. What power structures do these discourses entail?

The first secondary question is aimed at the policies on circularity. To set the scene for the discourse analysis it is important to know what policies exist, and more importantly which actors are behind them. It also provides a historical overview of how these policies came about. The second category is discourses. Here, I try to distinguish between the dominant and counter-discourses that have been enacted in correspondence with these policies. The third question comes forth out of the second category, and comprises the power structures that can be found in the discourses. My hypothesis is that the dominant discourses of the power elites are reflected in the policy documents – explicitly or implicitly – and that they serve their own interests more than the sustainability ideology that they should represent. However, such a hypothesis, false or true, can only be tested when enough data is collected, of which later more.

3.4 Data collection and analysis

This thesis is foremost a qualitative research. Qualitative research is naturalistic and interpretative in its approach, which understands meanings actors attach to different phenomena – actions, decisions, beliefs and values – within their real social world (Ritchie & Lewis 2003). Qualitative research is furthermore descriptive of experiences, behaviors and preferences (Voordt et al 2010) and a systematic approach to find deep understandings and meanings about the subject of study (Oel et al, 2010). To acquire relevant information, observations, interviews and documents are used. Observations are used to obtain on-site information about the scale, productivity and activity of urban climate change experiments. Interviews held with experts on circularity, municipal

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officials, and other involved actors provide a deeper understanding of the (social) contexts of the experiments and the policy documents. Moreover, interviews provide data about attitudes, opinions, thoughts, feelings and knowledge concerning the policy documents and experiments. For example, the interviewer could ask whether the interviewee felt supported by the municipality, if there were resources available for him to use, if he or she got obstructed by anything, et cetera. The interviews are semi-structured to acquire as much information about the topic as possible. In addition to observations and interviews, the policy documents published by the municipality of Amsterdam are studied in-depth. These documents not only give insights in the municipal stance on circularity and experiments, it also provides information about the processes that lead to these documents, and how experiments are valued differently than others. Besides the official published documents, a final source of information is news articles – be it from local papers, websites or magazines – council notes, council discussions and public speeches by municipal councilors.

1. Literature review

The second chapter of this thesis captures the literature review – theoretical framework. It is used to obtain a profound knowledge of the thesis subjects. The outcomes of this review are presented in an analytical framework that guides the data collection. The literature used for the review are mostly academic papers published in planning journals. Furthermore, books published by academics were used. The theoretical framework does not elaborate on the full theories, but focuses on the aspects of the theories relevant for this research. For a full review of those theories I refer to the listed literature at the end of this thesis.

2. Policy documents

The policy documents used for this thesis are primarily those mentioned in the next chapter: Sustainability Agenda, Monitor Sustainability Agenda, two Amsterdam Circular documents and the Circular Innovation Program. Furthermore, council notes have been used to write the different discourses, as well as the initiatives city councilors can put on the board agenda. Other documents include news articles, public speeches, statements from other text sources and political party programs.

3. Interviews

Finally, interviews were held with an array of actors involved in the circular economy in Amsterdam and the two mentioned projects specifically. The interviews were semi-structured to get a deep understanding of certain phenomena and to prevent simple yes/no answers. For a critical discourse analysis, it is important to know what is behind

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the text – the hidden political meaning – and therefore semi structuring the interviews seemed best. A complete list of interviewees is included in this chapter.

TABLE 1: List of interviewees

Person Type of interview Role / Company

Jan Heijns Personal Interview Moderator and program

maker Sustainability at Pakhuis de Zwijger Am-sterdam

Micha Hes Personal Interview Business Developer at

Har-bor Company

Jasper Groen Personal Interview Councilor GreenLeft party in Amsterdam

Arnold Homan Personal Interview Architect at Inbo Coen Overtoom Public Speech &

Q&A-ses-sion at Pakhuis de Zwijger Business Manager at Har-bor Company Willem Wiskerke Personal Interview Circularity Expert at

Greenpeace

Roon van Maanen Personal Interview Manager at Harbor Com-pany

Sytze van Stempvoort Personal Interview Founder of Peel Pioneers Sietse Aegema Q&A-session at Pakhuis de

Zwijger Manager & Business Deve-loper at Amsterdam Waste Company (AEB)

Abdeluheb Choho Public Speech Alderman of Sustainability in Amsterdam

3.5 Operationalization

Discourses can best be described as sets of ideas and practices that give particular (hidden) meanings to words, be it spoken or written. Discourses tell us how we think about certain subjects, while these subjects themselves can be part of the discourse. Foucault stated that many discourses can be present at the same time, but there is always one hegemonic discourse that tends to constitute the conditions of how its subjects ‘know’ the world. Weiss and Wodak (2003) state that power, ideology and hierarchy are all social variables that are relevant to the interpretation of text. In line with this reasoning, discourse analysis is best suited for this thesis, as Lukes’ ideological face of power is of particular interest here. But the question remains: how do you measure or observe power and discourses? Discourse is a way of speaking about reality: using a

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