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Tilting at Windmills Wageningen University, academic year 14/15 Department of CPT TILTING AT WINDMILLS A discourse analysis and comparison of climate change related communication of the political parties of Sverigedemokraterna and the United Kingdom Independence Party in the European context Author: Jacob Månsson Registration numner: 880623543020 Supervisor: Margit van Wessel Chair group: Communication Philosophy and Technology (CPT) Course code: CPT-81330 Wageningen University, academic year 14/15 Department of CPT Summary Europe is experiencing a growth of populist parties operating both in their national contexts and in the context of the European parliament. Although these parties are arguably most well known for their controversial views on immigration policies, they take on other topics too. The aim of this master is to explore if populism can be found within the parties’ respective communication, and if so how populism influences communication on the topic of climate change. It will also briefly discuss how this communication might affect its context. The thesis uses the social constructionist based interpretative approach to conduct a comparative discourse analysis comparing two chosen parties: the Swedish party of Sverigedemokraterna (SD) and the British party the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). The main research question is: Can characteristics of populism be found in the parties’ communication on climate issues? The research question is expanded on using three sub-research questions. The thesis uses a set of discourse analysis tools to analyse sets of quotes chosen from material sources including official party documents and media sources. All analysis results are discussed through the scope of an author-compiled definition of populism. Main research findings include communicative similarities in the parties’ view regarding the European Union’s influence on climate change related politics in Europe and differences in the parties’ communication regarding energy politics and its relation to climate change. Wageningen University, academic year 14/15 Department of CPT Table of contents SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................................................... 2 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION, THESIS AIM, RESEARCH QUESTIONS, POPULIST DEFINITION, PARTY INTRODUCTIONS ............................................................................................................................... 1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................................... 1 THESIS AIM ............................................................................................................................................................. 2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS .......................................................................................................................................... 2 POPULIST DEFINITION ................................................................................................................................... 2 THE PARTIES, AN OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................................ 3 CHAPTER 2: THEORY INTRODUCTION, ANALYTICAL TOOLS INTRODUCTION, METHOD AND VALIDITY SECTIONS .............................................................................................................................. 8 WHAT IS A DISCOURSE ANALYSIS? ........................................................................................................................ 8 INTRODUCING THE THESIS ANALYTICAL TOOLS ............................................................................................... 11 METHODS SECTION ............................................................................................................................................. 13 DATA SELECTION ................................................................................................................................................ 14 VALIDITY, RELIABILITY, LIMITATIONS AND GENERALIZATION ....................................................................... 17 CHAPTER 3: ANALYSIS SECTION 1 & 2: DISCOURSE TOOL APPLICATION ANALYSIS & COMMUNICATIVE THEMES COMPARISON ANALYSIS ....................................................................... 19 ANALYSIS OUTLINE ............................................................................................................................................. 19 ANALYSIS SECTION 1: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS TOOLS APPLICATION ................................................................. 20 DISCOURSE ANALYSIS TOOL APPLICATION, SVERIGEDEMOKRATERNA SUB-QUESTION 1 ............................. 20 DISCOURSE ANALYSIS TOOL APPLICATION, SVERIGEDEMOKRATERNA SUB-QUESTION 1 SUMMARY ........... 23 DISCOURSE ANALYSIS TOOL APPLICATION, SVERIGEDEMOKRATERNA SUB-QUESTION 2 ............................. 23 DISCOURSE ANALYSIS TOOL APPLICATION, SVERIGEDEMOKRATERNA SUB-QUESTION 2 SUMMARY ........... 26 DISCOURSE ANALYSIS TOOL APPLICATION, SVERIGEDEMOKRATERNA SUB-QUESTION 3 ............................. 26 DISCOURSE ANALYSIS TOOL APPLICATION, SVERIGEDEMOKRATERNA SUB-QUESTION 3 SUMMARY ........... 29 ANALYSIS SECTION 1 UNITED KINGDOM INDEPENDENCE PARTY .................................................................. 30 UKIP DISCOURSE ANALYSIS TOOL APPLICATION, SUB-QUESTION 1 .............................................................. 30 DISCOURSE ANALYSIS TOOL APPLICATION, UKIP SUB QUESTION 1 SUMMARY ............................................. 34 DISCOURSE ANALYSIS TOOL APPLICATION, UKIP SUB-QUESTION 2 .............................................................. 34 DISCOURSE ANALYSIS TOOL APPLICATION, UKIP SUB QUESTION 2 SUMMARY ............................................. 36 DISCOURSE ANALYSIS TOOL APPLICATION, UKIP SUB-QUESTION 3 .............................................................. 37 DISCOURSE ANALYSIS TOOL APPLICATION, UKIP SUB-QUESTION 3 SUMMARY ............................................ 40 ANALYSIS SECTION 2 - COMMUNICATIVE THEMES COMPARISON ............................................... 40 COMMUNICATIVE THEMES COMPARISON - SUB-QUESTION 1 RESULTS ........................................................... 41 COMMUNICATIVE THEMES COMPARISON - SUB-QUESTION 2 RESULTS ........................................................... 43 COMMUNICATIVE THEMES COMPARISON SUB-QUESTION 3 RESULTS ............................................................. 47 CHAPTER 4 CONCLUSION AND PERSONAL REFLECTIONS .............................................................. 50 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................................................ 50 PERSONAL REFLECTIONS .................................................................................................................................... 52 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................................... 53 Wageningen University, academic year 14/15 Department of CPT Wageningen University, academic year 14/15 Department of CPT Chapter 1: Introduction, thesis aim, research questions, populist definition, party introductions Introduction These are turbulent times in Europe. Many of European countries struggle with issues in key political areas including financial, immigration and employment. Due to the existence of the European Union, member states find themselves in a situation where they have to interact with each other to and with the union to find solutions to their issues. It is a scenario in which tensions flourish. In the past decades, voices have risen in many member states expressing scepticism toward how the own states and the union handles these issues. Populist, and in some cases nationalist, parties are growing in Europe. Thriving on discontent toward mainstream politics, European populist parties have in the past decades moved from political periphery to wielding considerable political power. In Sweden, the party of Sverigedemokraterna (Sweden Democrats, SD) became the country’s third largest party the election of 2014 (riksdagen.se, 2015). In the United Kingdom the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) hold two Seats in the House of Commons and three Seats in the House of Lords. As a result of their political success, both parties now hold seats in the European parliament, UKIP 23 seats and SD 2 seats. Many studies have been done to determine why parties such as SD and UKIP now experience a surge as political forces and entities. This thesis does not intend to further investigate why parties such as the two examples are growing. Instead the intention is to gain knowledge on what happens when they take on one of the major political issues of today: climate change. The parties’ used as examples in this thesis are meant to represent the growing power of European populist parties. Issues of climate change remain a major pressing political discussion in Europe as well as worldwide. Most leading researchers and politicians agree global warming and other environmental issues are now part of our reality. But the growth of populist parties shows this is not always accepted as a fact. As will be demonstrated throughout the thesis, there are powerful voices in European politics actively dismissing the
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