CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
| Author | Hanappi, Zenon |
|---|---|
| Title | Driving European Resilience through Sustainability: The Dynamics of Sustainable Transit in the Metropolis and the Political Strategies of the European Union |
| Summary | This thesis explores the case study of sustainable transit strategies of Madrid and Vienna in the context of international relations, and how IR theories can be used to demonstrate relationships between local, national, and international actors in explaining why and how different local-level actors go about implementing sustainable transit policies with varied levels of success. The central focus are the contrasting approaches and outcomes towards achieving infrastructures for zero-emission vehicles, as an alternative to traditional privately-owned petrol and diesel-powered vehicles. The study draws upon Constructivism, Global Political Economy (GPE), and Multi-Level Governance (MLG) on sustainable transit policies in major EU capitals, using Vienna and Madrid as case studies. This study applies qualitative methods, discourse analysis, and semi-structured interviews with the transportation officials of Vienna and Madrid, to demonstrate social acceptance outcomes of EU-aligned Madrid’s policies and the politically fraught state of Vienna’s transit policies. Interestingly, Madrid's effective alignment with European Union mandates fostering significant social acceptance and resilience to economic disruption, while Vienna's more hesitant, fragmented policy execution remained stalled by federal-municipal tensions between Austria and Vienna, limiting infrastructure investment. Additionally, the thesis positions sustainable transit infrastructure as an economic and security resilience priority due to the EU’s strategic reorientation after the Coronavirus pandemic, along with now-heightened competition from international market players like China in the EV market. |
| Supervisor | Etkind Alexander |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/hanappi_zenon.pdf |
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