Discursive Framings of Low Carbon Urban Transitions: The Contested Geographies of ‘Satellite Settlements’ in the Czech Republic

The discursive and representational aspects of the multiple political, economic and cultural challenges associated with low carbon urban transitions remain insufficiently explored in the academic literature. This is particularly true in the post-communist states of eastern and central Europe, which have been undergoing an additional transition of their own—from a centrally planned to a market-based economy. This paper, therefore, explores the manner in which climate change and sustainability narratives have been implicated in the development of ‘satellite settlements’—a specific form of sprawl present in the Czech Republic. Much of the paper is focused on investigating the discursive framings of such areas by relevant state policies and the national media in this country. Several key themes and discursive shifts in the representation of satellite settlements have been detected. Such changes may be connected to wider interactions among the dynamics of post-communist and low-carbon urban transition.