From ecocycle to sustainable growth: governing sustainability in Stockholm and Växjö

Abstract

Sustainable development has become a worldwide goal. Swedish municipalities were early to introduce Agenda 21, but the meaning of sustainable development is not always clear. This article illustrates how the sustainability discourses within two Swedish municipalities have shifted from focusing on adapting to the ecocycle to focusing on sustainable growth. The shift is seen parallel with municipalities’ growing role in the global economy, which has been argued to have become interweaved with a sustainability agenda. The analysis, informed by policy documents and interviews with municipal officials in Växjö and Stockholm, is based on a combination of Foucauldian discourse and governmentality.