Discourse Analysis on Energy Transition. French-English Bilingual Seminar, Ghent University (2026–2027)

This seminar seeks to examine how the notion of energy transition is discussed in various contemporary discourses, more specifically in journalistic discourse. Building on the observation put forward by Richard York and Elizabeth Bell (2019) and by Jean-Baptiste Fressoz (2024) that the energy transition does not correspond to historical reality, it becomes necessary to analyse the stakes of a critique of what may be described as a formula (Krieg-Planque, 2009), or even a myth (Jeusette, Pieron and Provenzano, 2024).
In an article published in Mots, Sophie Anquetil and Carine Duteil (2024) shed light on the processes of politicisation and depoliticisation at work in the discourse of a highly mediatised think tank whose aim is to liberate the economy from carbon constraints. In a lexicometric study adopting a diachronic perspective, Albin Wagener (2025) traced the evolution of transition narratives and assessed their effectiveness at different territorial, societal and institutional levels. Several studies have highlighted the political implications of representations related to energies, including their relationship to patriarchy (New Daggett, 2018), fascism (Malm & Collective Zetkin, 2020), neo-colonialism (Ferrant, 2025) and “civilisational” wars (Brosteaux, 2025). The link between energy and power no longer needs to be demonstrated, and strategies of domination are rooted in a specific economic model. The centralisation of decision-making processes, the mastery of technologies, the control of resources, and their intensive extraction are all integral to this politico-economic mode of energy governance. At the same time, other ways of organising decisions related to energy management are trying to emerge (see, among others, Renewable Energy Communities).
In light of these observations, many themes deserve sustained attention because of their prominence in journalistic discourse, conceived as a space of interdiscursivity, but also in social discourse more broadly: wars over energy-related issues (Ukraine since 2022, Iran since 2026), geopolitical tensions (customs policies, strategies of autonomy, states’ energy dependencies, intensive extractivism), the emergence of globalised AI (which reactivates the paradox of sustainability being threatened by its intensive energy consumption), and the return of the nuclear question to the “energy mix”.
What place do new forms of energy occupy within this panorama, and in which narratives, discourses, myths, and imaginaries – particularly socio-technical ones (Jasanoff & Simmet, 2021) – do they participate? To what extent do the terms “renewable energy”, “decarbonised”, or “green” contain an alternative dimension? What metaphorical networks have developed from those of “sustainable development” (Milne et al., 2006) and the “fight against climate change” (Evangelista, 2025)? What links can be established between the imaginaries of the “industrial revolution” (from the first to the fourth) and those of the “energy transition”? What temporal, aspectual, and modal framings shape these conceptions of the history of energy, as well as of its future (see Badir, 2022, on the “ecological transition”)? How do the media engage with the dominant techno-solutionist discourse, anchored in an economic logic of growth and in forms of modernism that do not call into question the logics of monopoly (Franck, 2026, 2027)? Do degrowth theories have a place in the argumentation of these discourses? What semantic, pragmatic, and ideological presuppositions are mobilised and developed by the media? What differences and analogies can be identified between them? Are the paradoxes of “green capitalism” addressed or repressed (Fox, 2022; Williams, 2024)? Who are the speakers given a voice when these themes are discussed? What strategies of enunciative hierarchisation emerge from these reported discourses?
All these questions shape the structure of a seminar intended to remain open to diverse approaches in discourse analysis and to cross-disciplinary perspectives within the language sciences.

Bibliography
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