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Just because they say it is sustainable development, it does not mean that it is: Sustainable development as a master-signifier in Swiss urban and regional planning

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  • Carr, Constance

    (University of Luxembourg)

Abstract

With stunning green landscapes, exemplary public transport, and picturesque walkable cities, Switzerland often occupies the public imaginary of a place that has tackled sustainable development. This research, however, looks under the hood and finds that this development path supports not only modes of capital accumulation, but also certain less sustainable patterns of development and governance. This paper examines this apparent paradox by looking at the role of sustainable development as a master-signifier in Swiss urban development processes. Empirical observations were made in the Glatt Valley of Switzerland, where governing officials of small municipalities are confronted with coordinating urban development under growth pressure within cantonal and federal policy frameworks that claim sustainable development. It can be seen that sustainable development is an empty master-signifier that policy makers engage to justify the quilting of a certain hegemonic discourses of power that reflect in further uneven urban development. By reproducing business as usual market-led urban growth, fragmentation is maintained as are social spatial disparities are entrenched.

Suggested Citation

  • Carr, Constance, 2020. "Just because they say it is sustainable development, it does not mean that it is: Sustainable development as a master-signifier in Swiss urban and regional planning," SocArXiv jvbue, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:jvbue
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/jvbue
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mark Davidson, 2010. "Sustainability as ideological praxis: The acting out of planning’s master‐signifier," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(4), pages 390-405, August.
    2. Jean Hillier & Michael Gunder, 2005. "Not over Your Dead Bodies! A Lacanian Interpretation of Urban Planning Discourse and Practice," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 37(6), pages 1049-1066, June.
    3. Hillary Angelo & David Wachsmuth, 2015. "Urbanizing Urban Political Ecology: A Critique of Methodological Cityism," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(1), pages 16-27, January.
    4. Carr, Constance & Hesse, Markus, 2020. "Mobility policy through the lens of policy mobility: The post-political case of introducing free transit in Luxembourg," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    5. Constance Carr, 2014. "Discourse Yes, Implementation Maybe: An Immobility and Paralysis of Sustainable Development Policy," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(9), pages 1824-1840, September.
    6. Patrick Rérat, 2012. "Housing, the Compact City and Sustainable Development: Some Insights From Recent Urban Trends in Switzerland," International Journal of Housing Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(2), pages 115-136.
    7. Aidan While & Andrew E. G. Jonas & David Gibbs, 2004. "The environment and the entrepreneurial city: searching for the urban ‘sustainability fix’ in Manchester and Leeds," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 549-569, September.
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