Descripción de las Cinco Fuerzas Competitivas

Analysis of economic discourse is necessary for two main reasons: (1) it explains how visions and ideologies are advanced in linking roads investment with economic growth, and (2) it provides ways to undermine such visions so that such investment could enhance economic growth. Big road projects are usually long term and large scale likely to have unusually high policy and planning stakes (Peters, 2003). The visions and ideologies are floated to achieve authority at the strategic level by the powerful by initiating mega-projects. In this regard, Sager (1999) observed that there are different economic and political rationalities and forces in such projects. Therefore, sometimes, economically rational projects face political challenges and vice versa (ibid). It creates conflicting discourse which is usually a hurdle to holding a meaningful conversation with stakeholders (Klamer, McCloskey, & Solow, 1988, pp. 65-66) which is different from the actual social practice (Fairclough, 1992, 1995). In this regard, Skillington (1998, p. 457) argues that discourse is a social practice and it continues to build up ideological exposure by interpreting how this practice clandestinely works and reworks through discursive dimensions.

The interpretations are usually advanced politically by floating national visions or ideologies similar to Flyvbjerg’s (2014) earlier mentioned ‘political sublime’. For example, politicians may get attracted to initiate big projects close to the next elections because of their political ambitions. To achieve their ambitions, they may initiate some vision or ideology stressing that such projects will bring tremendous economic growth. As these visions are generally not supported by necessary robust research, they act as a dubious practice in strengthening the top-down approach of the powerful in advancing their agenda. It is, therefore, necessary to uncover the underlying ideological practices in linking investments with economic growth. Such an investigation may be carried out by identifying the storylines regarding the discursive practices on economic fronts (Peters, 2003). Imran and Pearce (2015), for

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example, observe a ‘developmental bias towards roads’ in New Zealand based on the projections about higher property values, rising economic efficiency, industrial growth and economic prosperity and growth storylines.

To undermine dubious national visions, it is important to understand the working and reworking of hidden practices inherently involving politics in the roads decision- making process (Banister & Berechman, 2001; Flyvbjerg, 2014). Favourable political conditions, in terms of unbiased political visions, for example, provide a better decision-making environment in which power is excercised (Banister & Berechman, 2001). In the presence of politics, therefore, the real context of a road project remains socially constrained because power relations may not allow the social actors to take strategic economic decisions. For example, the tallest-fastest-longest type projects are based on such national level dubious practices in which their actual benefits are determined by the political, aesthetic and economic factors rather than the ground realities [see, for example, Flyvbjerg (2014)]. Similarly, Black (2001) argues that politicians and planners justify roads investment for achieving economic growth through dubious practices. Klamer (2001), therefore, rightly argues that economics is all rhetoric and the economic discourse is socially constrained. The discourse formations are built and used within a complex structure of social relations when it comes to socio-political aspects (Skillington, 1998). For example, some politicians may get trapped into initiating iconic structures on the basis of political, economic and aesthetic motives such as the Golden Gate Bridge in the United States (Flyvbjerg, 2014). Therefore, the ideologies and visions behind such projects need a tight scrutiny by distinguishing between the language used and the action taken in the decision-making process and the policy advancement.

Some authors, such as Klamer and McCloskey, favour dissolution of distinction between the language and action (Klamer et al., 1988, p. 66). The difference between the language used and the action is very important in understanding the advancement of visions and ideologies [see, for example, Fairclough (1995)]. Therefore, in the presence of dubious national visions, the language used in policy

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documents and the consequences achieved after the project execution are likely to be different. Such a difference in planning practices gives rise to the notion of pragmatism. The theme of pragmatism needs to be interpreted to investigate how the visions are perceived and how they actually deliver in line with what the literature suggests. This can be done by identifying storylines advancing such national visions and ideologies. Low and Odgers (2012) argue that storylines shape urban transport policy which then acts as a political tool in legitimizing such policy. Sometimes the media reports are helpful in identifying the relevant storylines and the discursive practices working behind the advancement of dubious national visions. However, as the media reports may tend to repeat storylines uncritically, other sources of data may also be consulted. This suggests that an analysis of the language used and action taken is necessary for understanding the underlying rationalities claiming to achieve economic growth by building roads.

The literature reviewed in this chapter shows that the link between roads investments and economic growth is predominantly determined by quantitative methods advanced by different discourses. However, these methods do not appreciate flexible contextual sensitivities, such as values, interests and power, in their fixed approaches. The literature recognises the shortcomings of claims about the link between roads investment and economic growth, which is based on poor quantification of benefits and costs of roads investment and, therefore, a questionable assumption about economic growth. However, it is not clear, what is the relative degree of influence contextual challenges have on measurement benefits of investment, which marks a gap in the existing literature. This gap leads to following primary research question:

How are arguments for economic growth advanced to promote new road projects?

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