A tale of two crises: The emergence of an eco-Keynesian coalition in Swedish transport decarbonisation discourse

Abstract

The paper traces a discursive shift in Swedish transport decarbonisation discourse, by which neoliberal hegemony has been increasingly challenged through the emergence of an eco-Keynesian discourse coalition encompassing trade unions, business and industry, and green and left-wing members of parliament. The investigation testifies to the importance of political ideas in effecting discursive change, and in restricting subject positions within discourses. The Swedish case is informative for transport decarbonisation in general for the tensions it harbours between classic Social Democratic industrial policy and neoliberalism, and between historical continuity and radical discontinuity. In particular, it reveals how the return to a specific historical idea of the state determines the subject positions of actors within the new discourse coalition.