Selective Rule Application Through Narratives: The Case of Sand Nourishment on Sylt

Sea-level rise (SLR) presents a growing global challenge, driving increasing reliance on sand nourishment as a coastal protection strategy. In Germany, national policy formally mandates that sand nourishment should serve only to protect coastlines from erosion and flooding. However, the case of Sylt—a prestigious North Sea Island renowned for its tourism-driven economy—highlights how narratives mediate the interpretation of this rule. While Sylt continues to receive nourishment, justified as essential for coastal protection, other locations are denied similar measures with the argument that nourishment for tourism is not permissible. This disparity underscores the selective application of formal rules and the power of narratives to prioritize prestigious locations over others. This study contributes to recent advancements in the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF), focusing on the intersection of narrative mechanisms—persuasion, manipulation, and attention—and their interaction with formal and informal rules to sustain policy stasis or drive change. Drawing on policy documents, newspaper articles, and stakeholder interviews, our preliminary results suggest that proponents employ narrative persuasion to align nourishment on Sylt with the formal rule while emphasizing its symbolic and economic benefits. Narrative manipulation reframes Sylt’s prestige as integral to its protection, masking underlying economic priorities, while narrative attention ensures continued focus on Sylt, diverting resources from other regions. Critics construct counter-narratives emphasizing environmental harm and distributive inequities but fail to effectively apply narrative mechanisms to challenge the rule’s selective interpretation. Although public sentiment often aligns with these counter-narratives, policy actors remain unconvinced of their merit, highlighting how narrative mechanisms shape the boundaries of institutional arrangements and policy stasis.