Conceptualizing controversies in the EU circular bioeconomy transition

Abstract

The transition towards a circular bioeconomy (CBE) in the European Union is not without contestation. In particular, research has highlighted potential trade-offs of the large-scale production of bio-resources, for instance with environmental quality goals. To date, however, it remains underexplored in the CBE literature how controversies develop throughout a transition process. To address this gap, this paper explores where controversies are situated in a transition, how they change throughout, and how they influence the transition process. First, we suggest that controversies can be situated on and between different system layers within a transition. Second, we offer an explanation of how controversies evolve, as actors confirm, integrate, disintegrate and polarize underlying storylines. Third, these controversies can have both productive and unproductive outcomes while they unfold throughout a transition. We illustrate this understanding with the example of biorefineries as CBE key technology and discuss a research agenda on controversies in sustainability transitions.

Keywords: Biorefinery; Circular bioeconomy; Discourse coalition; European Union; Policy controversy; Sustainability transition.

Fig. 1

Loci of transition controversies on and between different system layers, after Geels (2002), Geels (2005), Loorbach et al. (2017), Van Der Minne et al. (2021)

Fig. 2

Four possible shifts in dynamic discourse coalitions over time