A Socio-Technical Perspective on Transitioning to a Circular Plastic Economy in Africa

Muyiwa Oyinlola, Oluwaseun Kolade, Patrick Schröder, Victor Odumuyiwa, Barry Rawn, Kutoma Wakunuma, Soroosh Sharifi, Selma Lendelvo, Ifeoluwa Akanmu, Radhia Mtonga, Bosun Tijani, Timothy Whitehead, Geoff Brighty, Soroush Abolfathi

Research output: Preprint or Working paperPreprint

Abstract

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.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages59
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 23 Dec 2022

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A Socio-Technical Perspective on Transitioning to a Circular Plastic Economy in Africa'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this