title: Moving meaning? The translation of sustainability norms in EU urban mobility governance
Creators: name: Stockmann, Nils
Publisher: name: University of Muenster, Institutional Repository MIAMI
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: 320 Political science (Politics and government)

description: ‚Moving meaning? The translation of sustainability norms in EU urban mobility governance‘ bietet eine aktuelle Bewertung der Herausforderungen der Transformation zu einer nachhaltigen urbanen Mobilität als Schlüsselsektor für die klima- und umweltpolitischen Ambitionen der Europäischen Union (EU). Konzeptionell vereint die Arbeit Perspektiven aus der EU-Forschung, den Internationalen Beziehungen und Nachhaltigkeitsforschung. Mit Hilfe des Konzepts der Normübersetzung wird eine neue Perspektive auf die komplexe Arena der EU Mehrebenen-Governance eröffnet. Sie erklärt inhaltliche und prozessuale Dynamiken, die politische Räume horizontal und vertikal über Ebenen und Sektoren hinweg überschreiten. Eine umfassende qualitativ-interpretative Studie, basierend auf über 60 Experten- und Stakeholder-Interviews, der Analyse von Policy-Dokumenten und teilnehmenden Beobachtungen, aktualisiert das Wissen über die urbane Mobilitätsgovernance als zentrales Feld der nachhaltigen Transformation in der EU und deckt kritisch verschiedene Wege der ‚Bedeutungswerdung‘ von Nachhaltigkeit sowie die zugrunde liegenden Machtdynamiken auf.
description: ‘Moving meaning? The translation of sustainability norms in EU urban mobility governance’ provides a state-of-the-art assessment of the drivers and challenges of the sustainable urban mobility transition as a key sector for the European Union’s (EU) climate and environmental policy ambitions. Conceptually, the thesis brings together perspectives from EU research, International Relations theory and transitional studies. With the use of the norm translation concept, the thesis obtains a novel perspective on the complex EU multilevel governance arena. It explains substantive and processual dynamics that transgress political realms horizontally and vertically across levels and sectors. A comprehensive qualitative-interpretive study building on over 60 expert and stakeholder interviews, policy documents and participatory observations updates the knowledge about urban mobility governance as a critical field of the EU sustainability transition and critically uncovers different avenues of ‘meaning-making’ regarding sustainability as well as underlying power dynamics.
description: Abbreviations ..... v
Tables &amp; Figures ..... vii
1. Introduction ..... 1
1.1. Definition of the core terms of the thesis ..... 2
1.2. 'Movement' in times of crises: a dialectic discussion of the thesis' practical relevance ..... 6
1.3. Key research gaps and scholarly relevance ..... 9
1.4. Research design and data ..... 12
1.5. Structure of the thesis ..... 14
2. Eminent research: The global quest for sustainability, urban mobility, the EU and the role of norms ..... 17
2.1. Global environmental and sustainability governance research ..... 17
2.1.1. From global environmental to global sustainability governance ..... 17
2.1.2. Horizontal and vertical fragmentation of global sustainability governance ..... 18
2.2. Mobility research and the urban dimension ..... 20
2.2.1. From transport to mobility research ..... 21
2.2.2. The urban dimension of sustainable mobility ..... 23
2.3. European Union governance and policy studies ..... 24
2.3.1. EU governance between compliance and implementation ..... 24
2.3.2. Critical EU policy studies ..... 27
2.4. Norm research on the EU and sustainability ..... 28
2.4.1. Norm research and the EU ..... 29
2.4.2. Norms and (global) sustainability governance ..... 30
2.5. Translation in IR (norm) research ..... 33
2.6. Chapter conclusion ..... 35
3. Urban mobility governance in the European Union ..... 36
3.1. EU urban mobility governance as a decentred arena of global sustainability challenges ..... 36
3.2. Developments towards the EU urban mobility governance arena ..... 38
3.2.1. The early development of EU transport &amp; mobility policy ..... 38
3.2.2. “A new realism” in EU transport and mobility policy: The integration of the environmental and social dimensions ..... 40
3.3. Mapping the contemporary EU urban mobility governance arena ..... 42
3.3.1. Overarching discourses and ideational dimensions ..... 43
3.3.2. European Union strategic and policy architecture of the urban mobility governance arena ..... 45
3.3.3. Actors in the EU urban mobility governance arena ..... 50
3.4. Chapter conclusion ..... 55
4. Towards a norm-conceptual framework to understand dynamics in sustainable urban mobility governance ..... 56
4.1. Understanding norms in the tension between polysemy and robustness ..... 57
4.1.1. Meta-theoretical foundations of IR norm research ..... 57
4.1.2. A conversation between polysemy and robustness ..... 60
4.1.3. Norm clusters as a heuristic to make polysemy and robustness analytically tangible ..... 64
4.2. Sustainability norms: Contested, polysemic, clustered ..... 66
4.3. Norm translation ..... 72
4.3.1. Norm dynamics – assessing norms as they move ..... 72
4.3.2. Assessing norm dynamics with a translation vocabulary ..... 75
4.3.3. Towards a multiscalar norm translation framework ..... 80
4.4. Operationalising norm translation for the EU urban mobility governance arena ..... 87
4.5. Chapter conclusion ..... 90
5. Methodology and empirical research design ..... 92
5.1. Methodological directions in IR norm research and their relation to GEG/GSG research ..... 92
5.1.1. Methodological and methodical avenues in IR norm research ..... 93
5.1.2. IR norm &amp; GSG research: Different but same? ..... 96
5.2. A qualitative-interpretive approach to study norm translation dynamics in complex governance arenas ..... 98
5.3. Material selection &amp; research process ..... 102
5.3.1. Material selection ..... 102
5.3.2. Analytical Process ..... 108
5.4. Chapter conclusion ..... 111
6. Results: Translations of sustainability norms in EU urban mobility governance ..... 112
6.1. The substantive dimension: What does sustainability mean in the EU urban mobility governance arena? ..... 112
6.2. The processual dimension: Modes of norm translation ..... 121
6.2.1. Prescriptive translation ..... 123
6.2.2. Financial translation ..... 129
6.2.3. Technical and spatial operationalisation-as-translation ..... 133
6.2.4. Learning-as-translation ..... 139
6.2.5. Sociocultural translation ..... 144
6.2.6. Making translations work together ..... 149
6.3. Power in the translation of sustainability norms in EU urban mobility governance ..... 152
6.3.1. Knowledge ..... 153
6.3.2. Identity ..... 160
6.3.3. Contingency and disruption ..... 169
6.4. Chapter conclusion ..... 176
7. Discussion ..... 178
7.1. Answers to the research question and explanatory value ..... 178
7.2. Limitations of the research design and analysis ..... 184
7.3. Contributions to eminent research fields ..... 187
7.3.1. International relations research on norms and norm dynamics ..... 188
7.3.2. (Global) sustainability and mobility governance ..... 192
7.3.3. European Union governance ..... 195
7.4. Chapter conclusion ..... 200
8. Conclusion ..... 201
8.1. Summary of the conceptual framework ..... 201
8.2. Summary of the empirical results and discussion ..... 203
8.3. Moving forward: An outlook on practical implications for policy and research ..... 209
Literature ..... 215
ANNEX I: List of documents considered for the analysis ..... ix
ANNEX II: List of interviews ..... xv
ANNEX III: Documentation of (participatory) observations ..... xix
ANNEX IV: Adjusted category system ..... xx
ANNEX V: Overview of institutional actors &amp; policy developments in the EU urban mobility governance arena ..... xxvii