Innovation governance of socioecological systems towards circular economy in the digital age

Supervisor/s: Giovanni Allegretti and Dirk Roep

Doctoral Programme: Democracy in the Twenty-first Century

Growing global population, unsustainable production and consumption patterns are creating pressures on ecosystems and on natural resources, such as resources depletion, greenhouse gases emissions and zoonoses. Urban socioecological systems are a key element to address such issues, in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Research and political agendas have focused on the contribution of the concept of circular economy in the transition from linear systems towards circular systems. An assessment of the necessary innovation governance steps for the transition towards circular economy within a digital era, with a regenerative output to the environment, has not been conducted. Adopting the living lab research methodology, the project will identify the governance steps and challenges for the transition to circular socioecological systems, testing innovative decision models based on digital data tools applied to social sciences, fostering democratic participation in the decision process, innovation driven regulation, and providing a replicable policy governance roadmap.

Keywords: Innovation Policy; Anticipatory Governance ; Circular Economy; Social Data Science; Sustainability transitions; Sociotechnical imaginaries

Supervisors:

*Professor Giovanni Allegretti : Centre for Social Studies, University of -Coimbra, Portugal

*Professor Dirk Roep : Rural Sociology Group of Wageningen University, Netherlands

Funding: FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology, Portugal