The “Fine Art” of “Green” Land Sealing? Competing Discourses on Expansion‐Oriented Suburban Planning

The growing populations of many of Europe’s metropolises have intensified pressure on housing provision and renewed political support for large‐scale urban expansions. This has sharpened conflicts between housing development and the preservation of green spaces, particularly in suburban landscapes. This article analyses how such conflicts are politically negotiated and rhetorically stabilised in Hamburg and Munich, two major German cities with highly strained housing provision. Drawing on poststructuralist discourse theory, the study examines political discourses on housing construction and green space policies, with particular attention to how tensions between them are reconciled. The analysis is based on policy documents, planning materials, media coverage, and semi‐structured interviews. The findings identify three competing discourses that are articulated in largely similar ways in both cities: “preservation of all green spaces,” “deregulation for a housing construction offensive,” and “construction should continue, just not everywhere.” While the first two discourses advance internally consistent but polarised positions and remain marginal, the third discourse has become hegemonic. It claims to integrate housing construction and green space preservation, yet does so by obscuring inherent contradictions through a set of recurring discursive strategies. The article argues that this hegemonic discourse enables a substantial political shift from prioritising inner‐city development towards legitimising large suburban greenfield projects, while formally maintaining established sustainability goals. By exposing how growth‐oriented rationalities are discursively stabilised, the study exposes the fragility of contemporary suburban greenfield development policies.