TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE? Narrative policy analyses of the EU’s Circular Economy policy framework

Sammanfattning: The thesis uses narrative policy analysis to explore how the EU’s circular economy action plan and its related strategies incorporate and use the concepts of sustainable development and sustainability. This exploration enables consideration if the EU’s circular economy policy framework is made fit for the sustainable future the EU is projecting. The thesis uses a conceptual framework that was specifically made for the purpose of understanding this, and a narrative policy analysis enables to see the usage of EU narratives within the policy framework. Across seven strategies analysed, four narratives were found: i) an efficiency narrative, ii) fossil-fuel/material dependency narrative, iii) competitiveness narrative, and iv) a grand narrative on sustainable economic growth. The concepts of sustainable development and sustainability, together with the first three narratives, are used to further the EU’s grand narrative of sustainable economic growth. Sustainability is itself not explained, enabling flexibility and ambiguousness to be used around it. This is both a weakness in its risk of the concepts being used as selling points, and a strength in its abilities to be applied and accepted on a wider level. At the moment, the future the EU wishes to project is not sustainable in the long-term. It needs further incorporation of the environmental and social dimensions of sustainability and might well be on the right path towards a long-term viable sustainable future.