Contesting Aviation Expansion: Depoliticisation, Technologies of Government and Post- Aviation Futures

This book focuses on airport expansion and aviation as a wicked policy problem to illuminate wider theoretical debates and conceptualisations about policy analysis and social and political theory. It examines the authoritative role of expert commissions in seeking to settle ongoing controversies and discusses the concept of depoliticisation in debates about current and future policy analysis. The authors construct and employ an innovative form of poststructuralist policy analysis, which is used to delineate the rival rhetorical and discursive strategies articulated by the coalitions seeking to shape public policy. Front Cover 1 Contesting Aviation Expansion: Depoliticisation, Technologies of Government and Post- Aviation Futures 2 Copyright information 3 Table of Contents 4 List of figures and tables 5 List of abbreviations 6 Acknowledgements 8 Introduction: 10 A growing global challenge: airports and aviation in context 14 Approaching the airports and aviation problem 17 The UK airports and aviation dilemma 19 The argument 20 Problematising the problematisations 22 The method of genealogy 25 The particular and the universal 26 Statements, signifiers and tropes 27 Outline and organisation of the book 28 1 Depoliticisation, discourse and policy hegemony 30 Debates in contemporary political theory and science 31 Building an agenda 35 Logics of politicisation and depoliticisation: mechanisms, strategies and tactics 36 Deferring to expertise 38 Decontesting the terms of discourse: framing and rhetorical redescription 39 The production of empty signifiers 40 The logic of difference 41 Fantasmatic images and narratives 42 Rationalities, technologies and techniques of government 45 Struggles for policy hegemony 48 Conclusion 50 2 Governing by numbers: fantasies of forecasting, ‘predict and provide’ and the technologies of government 52 The social logic of ‘predict and provide’ 53 The art of forecasting 54 Flaws and mounting opposition 58 Public inquiries 59 Bring on the experts: the Roskill Commission 65 Cost-benefit analysis ... 66 ... and its discontents 67 Discursive framing 70 A national public consultation 73 Conclusion 79 3 The anatomy of an expert Commission: Howard Davies, rhetorical reframing and the performance of leadership 82 The work of the Airports Commission 84 First acts of power: framing the terms of reference 89 Performing authority: between quantification and judgement 90 The logic of ‘predict and provide’ and the technique of forecasting 93 Supporting ‘a thriving aviation sector’: the rhetoric of economic boosterism 97 The public face of the Commission: engaging stakeholders in an ‘open and inclusive’ process 100 Muting noise 103 Displacing climate change 105 Conclusion: The politics and ideology of the Airports Commission 108 4 Repoliticising aviation policy: law, planning and persistent activism 112 Repoliticising the Airports Commission 113 ‘Predict and provide’ redux: the Conservative government’s ‘go for growth’ 120 Ideological reframing and the new planning technology 120 Fast planning meets politics 123 The discursive tactics of depoliticisation 125 Legal challenges, the Climate Change Act and the Climate Change Committee 128 The paradoxes of politicisation and depoliticisation 130 Contesting aviation expansion and climate change in the courts 132 Conclusion 137 5 Extreme turbulence: problematisations, multiple crises and new demands 139 Problematisations and technologies of government 141 The return of the courts: rival interpretations and conflicting disagreements 147 The post-Brexit interregnum 151 The COVID-19 crisis 152 Climate uncertainties and COP26 156 Political and ideological turbulence 156 Conclusion 159 6 ‘What if...?’ A manifesto for the green transformation of aviation 161 ‘Business as usual’: reiterating the fantasmatic narrative of sustainable aviation 162 Why ‘business as usual’ is no longer an option 164 Technological fixes will not come quickly enough 164 Offsetting will continue to fuel expansion and perpetuate climate injustice 165 Flying is an environmentally unjust activity 167 The economic numbers do not stack up 168 There is no capacity overload, and airport expansion is simply a strategy to beat off the competition 170 The logic of attenuation: demand management 171 Why demand management will not go far enough and not quickly enough 173 Post-growth aviation in the UK: a manifesto for a just green transformation 175 Suppressing demand and ending expansionist ‘go for growth’ aviation policies 176 Divestment 177 Ending short-haul flights and promoting alternatives 177 A just transition 178 Envisioning an alternative hedonism 180 Delivering the green transformation in aviation 181 Conclusion 184 Conclusion: Staying grounded 186 The grip of numbers and the logic of quantification 188 Politicisation, depoliticisation and the technologies of government 191 The politics of law and judicial review 194 Campaigning, dilemmas and hegemony 198 The British State, party politics and political will 202 Critique, normative evaluation and demands 207 Our demands for the green transformation of UK aviation 208 Notes 213 References 218 Index 252