The clash of worlds: Competing narratives over the Lyon-Turin high-speed railway megaproject

This paper explores the role of policy narratives in the implementation of megaprojects, namely complex, uncertain and conflictual large-scale investment projects involving multiple public and private stakeholders and with a great impact on the economy and the environment. By focusing on the Lyon-Turin high-speed railway megaproject, we investigate how policy narratives developed by proponents and opponents of this megaproject shape controversies in its implementation. While the paper mostly focuses on the role of narratives, it does not neglect the institutional context that might facilitate or constrain policy decisions. In operationalizing the concept of policy narrative, we build on Boltanski and Thévenot’s (1991) justification theory, which provides useful support for interpreting controversies between actors with competing evaluations of reality. According to the authors, justifications are organized into seven logics corresponding to seven different “common worlds”: civic, fame, market, industrial, domestic, inspired and green. Empirical material consists of semi-structured interviews (n=78) and documents (n=80), covering a time period from 1985 to 2017. The paper argues that actors’ competing narratives about the megaproject rest on contradicting understandings and interpretations of the same worlds. In particular, opponents question the degree to which the organizing principles appropriate to a world are being correctly applied by the proponents. Moreover, the article shows how, as an effect of the different institutional contexts, controversies and decisions on implementation have developed in different ways in Italy and France