Mainstreaming Sustainable Development

The overall aim of this study is to consider the wider presuppositions and discourses that underpin contemporary mainstream political practice on the environment, linking them to their political effects. I analyse three institutional documents on environmental sustainability through both Foucaultian and Lacanian Discourse Analysis. I am interested in assessing the ways in which the challenge to capitalism that the ecologic crisis embodies is managed, in order for it to survive. Through Foucaultian analysis I consider the issue of power. The Lacanian analysis opens the way for a consideration of fantasy and enjoyment in relation to environmental discourse. If combined, the two visions also appear to be able to generate altogether new insights. Their comparison allows to assess the strengths and weaknesses of each method, especially in relation to their capacity to generate critical social analysis. Close attention is given to issues of reflexivity and to the meaning of scientific rigour in the context of such a post-structuralist piece of research.