Abstract
This chapter evaluates the failed efforts of the Airports Commission to depoliticise UK aviation policy. Articulating the insights of post-structuralist policy analysis, it surfaces the discursive and rhetorical tropes deployed by the Commission, notably the depoliticising genre of expertise and the performance of authority by its chair, Howard Davies. It then examines how the credibility of these appeals came under challenge as campaigners deployed rival discursive strategies to re-politicise airport expansion. It draws attention to how campaigners attempted to reframe policy debates onto air pollution and climate change, as well as challenges to the expertise and the personal reputation of Howard Davies. In conclusion, the chapter thus stresses the dialectical relationship between depoliticisation and politicisation, and the spatial and temporal dimensions of strategies of depoliticisation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Airports Commission. (2015, July 1). Airports Commission: Final Report. London: Airports Commission.
Bates, S., Jenkins, L., & Amery, F. (2014). (De)politicisation and the Father’s Clause Parliamentary Debates. Policy & Politics, 42(2), 243–258.
Bevir, M. (2010). Democratic Governance. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Buller, J., & Flinders, M. (2005). The Domestic Origins of Depoliticisation in the Area of British Economic Policy. British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 7(4), 526–543.
Burnham, P. (2001). New Labour and the Politics of Depoliticisation. British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 3(2), 127–149.
Davies, Sir H. (2015). Letter to J. Arnold OBE AM, 28 September 2015. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/463767/howard-davies-to-jennette-arnold-280915.pdf, accessed 29 April 2018.
Department for Transport (DfT). (2015a, July 1). Airports Commission Final Report: Oral Statement, Patrick McLoughlin. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/speeches/airports-commission-final-report-oral-statement, accessed 10 March 2016.
Department for Transport (DfT). (2015b, December 14). Aviation Capacity. Oral Statement to Parliament, Patrick McLoughlin. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/speeches/aviation-capacity, accessed 9 March 2017.
Department for Transport (DfT). (2016, October 25). Government Decides on a New Runway at Heathrow. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/news/government-decides-on-new-runway-at-heathrow, accessed 9 March 2017.
Flinders, M., & Buller, J. (2006). Depoliticisation: Principles. Tactics and Tools. British Politics, 1(3), 1–26.
Flinders, M., & Wood, M. (2014). Depoliticisation, Governance and the State. Policy & Politics, 42(2), 135–149.
Greenpeace. (2015, July 1). Davies Fails to Make the Case for a 3rd Runway, G. Thompson. Available at: www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/climate/davies-fails-make-case-3rd-runway-20150701, accessed 8 March 2017.
Griggs, S., & Howarth, D. (2013a). The Politics of Airport Expansion in the United Kingdom. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Griggs, S., & Howarth, D. (2013b). Between a Rock and a Hard Place: The Coalition, the Davies Commission and the Wicked Issue of Airport Expansion. Political Quarterly, 84(4), 515–526.
Griggs, S., & Howarth, D. (Forthcoming). The Airports Commission, the Dilemmas of Political Leadership, and the Third Runway at Heathrow Airport. Political Quarterly.
Griggs, S., Hall, S., Howarth, D., & Seigneuret, N. (2017). Characterising and Evaluating Rival Discourses of the ‘Sustainable City’: Towards a Politics of Pragmatic Adversarialism. Political Geography, 57, 36–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2017.02.07.
Hajer, M. (2005). Setting the Scene. A Dramaturgy of Policy Deliberation. Administration & Society, 36(6), 624–647.
Hay, C. (2007). Why We Hate Politics. Cambridge: Polity Press.
House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee (EAC). (2015). The Airports Commission Report: Carbon Emissions, Air Quality and Noise, HC 389. London: EAC.
Howarth, D. (2000). Discourse. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Howarth, D. (2013). Poststructuralism and After. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
IPSOS-MORI. (2014, September 7). MPs Attitudes to Heathrow Airport Expansion. Available at: www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/3442/MPs-attitudes-to-Heathrow-Airport-expansion.aspx, accessed 9 March 2017.
Jenkins, L. (2011). The Difference Genealogy Makes: Strategies for Depoliticisation or How to Extend Capacities for Autonomy. Political Studies, 59, 156–174.
Laclau, E. (2005). On Populist Reason. London: Verso.
Laclau, E., & Mouffe, C. (1985). Hegemony and Socialist Strategy. London: Verso.
Lees, J. (2015, July 3). The Heathrow Noise Sweeteners That Act as a Smokescreen for Third Runway Pollution. Available at: www.aef.org.uk/2015/07/03/the-heathrow-noise-sweeteners-that-act-as-a-smokescreen-for-third-runway-pollution/, accessed 9 March 2017.
Offe. C. (1984). Contradictions of the Welfare State (J. Keane, Ed.). Cambridge: MIT Press.
Plane Stupid. (2015, July 3). Airports Commission Backs Heathrow 3rd Runway. Available at: www.planestupid.com/blog?page=6, accessed 26 July 2015.
Staten, H. (1984). Wittingstein and Derrida. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Valentine, J. (2013, January 31). Opening Remarks. In Westminster Energy, Environment & Transport Forum, A Fresh Look at UK Airport Capacity: Time for a 3rd Runway at Heathrow?Transcripts. London: Westminster Energy, Environment & Transport, p. 6.
Wood, M. (2016). Politicisation, Depoliticisation and Anti-politics: Towards a Multilevel Research Agenda. Political Studies Review, 14(4), 521–533. https://doi.org/10.1111/1478-9302.12074.
Žižek, S. (1998). The Seven Veils of Fantasy. In D. Nobus (Ed.), Key Concepts in Lacanian Psychoanalysis (pp. 190–218). London: Rebus.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Griggs, S., Howarth, D. (2019). The Airports Commission, Depoliticisation and the Third Runway at Heathrow Airport. In: Buller, J., Dönmez, P., Standring, A., Wood, M. (eds) Comparing Strategies of (De)Politicisation in Europe . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64236-9_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64236-9_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-64235-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-64236-9
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)