Network building in the context of circular economy. A case study on the organic material stream in Hamburg, Germany.

Abstract

Several negative impacts that have characterised the development models of cities in the past have arisen particular concern from urban policymakers in recent years, especially regarding environmental issues. These challenges are making it always more difficult for cities to remain competitive, in terms of being able to attract people, businesses, and diverse economic activities. Moreover, these are seen as at the base of a fragile socio-economic situation, faced nowadays in different cities and countries around the world. Within the context of sustainable development, in Europe, the supranational political and economic body (EU) has continuously proposed theoretical approaches and concepts: one of the latest commitments has resulted in the introduction of the Circular Economy agenda into the mainstream policy debate. This master thesis focuses on exploring this emerging concept and its potential implications for cities/regions, with Hamburg as case study. The Circular Economy topic is addressed in this work by means of public policy framework at the local level with the overall objective to explore the necessary conditions to build and maintain the network of actors capable of developing ‘circular solutions’ and implementing them within the organic material stream in Hamburg, in the perspective of designing a public policy which envisions a long term scenario. Difficulties linked to the still ambiguous and evolving nature of the Circular Economy concept have required a deep analysis of theory and EU policy approach on the topic. Public policy conceptual framework has been applied to define the relevant actors with the scope of building the aforementioned network and explore its internal dynamics in a hypothetical scenario. Afterwards, a set of interviews with local experts and stakeholders has been conducted to identify the actors and the starting conditions within the given context. In addition, a Material Flow Analysis has been performed for further exploring these conditions. Within the identified network of stakeholders, innovative collaboration arrangements – based on a collaborative governance approach – are explored. In this context, the role of local public authority has been proved to be central to initiate and direct the decision-making process, coordinating actors and overseeing the design and implementation of a public policy. Due to the complexity of the topic, one of the main settings for building the empirical network is the inclusion of politics, industry, research and civil society actors with reference to the Quadruple Helix model. Results from the case study of Hamburg, have targeted the cluster policy at place as a framework for maintaining the network of actors and thus guarantee a platform for addressing problems in the future concerning the organic material stream management. Lessons learnt from the case of organic material stream can be further developed into a framework for similar projects of other cross-cutting policies in the future under the overall topic of Circular Economy as emerging policy from EU governmental body.