Constructive disagreement and harmful hope in environmental communication for sustainability transition

We investigate how disagreeing is performed in conversations about circular economy futures, and how it is disturbed by discursive norms of hope. Disagreement is recognised as an interactive process essential for knowledge development and democracy. However, conducting democratic investigations of differences becomes difficult when interaction norms prioritise hopeful expressions. Drawing on 11 h of recorded meetings on the circular economy, we analyse how disagreement is interactively performed and link these observations about the constraining effects of ‘harmful hope’ to ideas of radical democracy and expectations surrounding hopeful environmental communication. We identify four discursive procedures of hope— community , appreciative coordination , concept innovation , and underlying disagreements , and demonstrate how these regulate and limit processes of agreeing and disagreeing, thereby influencing the conditions for constructive disagreement essential for democracy. Ultimately, we demonstrate how conversations about futures become dominated by norms of hope, which come at the expense of communicative capacity to constructively examine disagreements necessary for advancing sustainable transitions. This dynamic is evident even when the desired future involves radical transformations of production and consumption systems, as in the circular economy. Our study offers insights into what and how these discursive structures should be challenged in conversations about sustainability futures. • Disagreeing is an interactive process essential for knowledge development and democracy. • Circular economy talks are shaped by discursive norms of hope. • Democratic investigations of differences are difficult when interaction norms sanction hopeful expressions. • Four discursive procedures— community , coordination , concept innovation and underlying disagreements , shape agreeing and disagreeing. • The study shows why and how to challenge harmful norms.