TY - UNPB
T1 - A Socio-Technical Perspective on Transitioning to a Circular Plastic Economy in Africa
AU - Oyinlola, Muyiwa
AU - Kolade, Oluwaseun
AU - Schröder, Patrick
AU - Odumuyiwa, Victor
AU - Rawn, Barry
AU - Wakunuma, Kutoma
AU - Sharifi, Soroosh
AU - Lendelvo, Selma
AU - Akanmu, Ifeoluwa
AU - Mtonga, Radhia
AU - Tijani, Bosun
AU - Whitehead, Timothy
AU - Brighty, Geoff
AU - Abolfathi, Soroush
PY - 2022/12/23
Y1 - 2022/12/23
N2 - Socio-technical niche innovations offer significant opportunities to accelerate Africa's transition to a circular plastic economy. However, information on how these opportunities can be operationalised is fragmented, and stakeholder networks appear to be significantly under-developed on the continent. This paper applies the multi-level perspective of socio-technical transitions theory to analyse the shift from a linear plastics system to a circular plastics economy enabled by digital innovations. Drawing from an inter-sectoral engagement with 151 circular economy stakeholders and a cross-sectional survey of 1475 households across five (5) African countries, along with a critical synthesis of the extant literature, this study illuminates the multi-stakeholder dynamics that underpin the technology-society interactions in advancing a digitally enabled circular plastic economy in Africa. It identifies the emerging technologies for niche innovations that could hasten Africa’s embrace of the circular plastic economy with a cross-section of stakeholders playing an important role. It provides new insight into the seven regime dimensions and further explores some of the pressing external pressures from the exogenous landscape.
AB - Socio-technical niche innovations offer significant opportunities to accelerate Africa's transition to a circular plastic economy. However, information on how these opportunities can be operationalised is fragmented, and stakeholder networks appear to be significantly under-developed on the continent. This paper applies the multi-level perspective of socio-technical transitions theory to analyse the shift from a linear plastics system to a circular plastics economy enabled by digital innovations. Drawing from an inter-sectoral engagement with 151 circular economy stakeholders and a cross-sectional survey of 1475 households across five (5) African countries, along with a critical synthesis of the extant literature, this study illuminates the multi-stakeholder dynamics that underpin the technology-society interactions in advancing a digitally enabled circular plastic economy in Africa. It identifies the emerging technologies for niche innovations that could hasten Africa’s embrace of the circular plastic economy with a cross-section of stakeholders playing an important role. It provides new insight into the seven regime dimensions and further explores some of the pressing external pressures from the exogenous landscape.
UR - https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4332904
U2 - 10.2139/ssrn.4332904
DO - 10.2139/ssrn.4332904
M3 - Preprint
BT - A Socio-Technical Perspective on Transitioning to a Circular Plastic Economy in Africa
ER -