Governing the discourses of sustainability and education - A critical comparison of the EU´s global gateway and China´s belt and road initiative

Abstract

Aim: This thesis compares how the European Union’s Global Gateway (GG) and China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) construct the concepts of “education” and “sustainability” within development cooperation discourses. Using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the study identifies how each initiative frames these terms, negotiates tensions between transformative education and growth-first logics, and balances different dimensions of sustainability. Theory: The theoretical framework integrates: CDA for text and discourse analysis, hegemony and radical democracy for interrogating ideological stakes (Fairclough, van Dijk, Laclau & Mouffe); and critical pedagogy (Freire, McLaren) together with Seghezzo’s five-dimensional model of sustainability for normative evaluation. Method: A qualitative CDA of official EU and China policy documents (1998–2024), chosen for authoritativeness and focus on education and sustainability. The analysis followed a structured workflow: corpus selection, word frequency and collocation analysis, coding of key terms in NVivo, organisation in thematic clusters, and interpretation at textual, discursive, and social practice levels. Results: The EU couples a rights-based, ESD-centred register with competitiveness and employability, reflecting a hybrid normative/neoliberal discourse shaped by the technologisation of policy language. China emphasises vocational capacity, connectivity, and soft power within a statist, delivery-focused discourse, likewise technologised through slogans, metrics, and branded instruments. Across Seghezzo’s dimensions, the EU foregrounds persons and permanence while often subordinating place; the BRI privileges permanence and instrumentalises place/persons. Both converge on growth-oriented common sense and are largely silent on participatory/critical education, power redistribution, and non-market pathways, narrowing democratic contestation. The study argues for opening discursive and programmatic space, through clearer theories of change, co-monitoring with partner countries, and protections for pluralism - so education for sustainability can function as an emancipatory, not merely instrumental, project.