Joacim Rosenlund

Exploring attitudes to societal relevance : the effects of reflection on research practices among Swedish environmental scientists

Funding agencies and policy-makers have put increasing pressure on scientists to better clarify the usefulness of their research. It has been suggested that this may have led to an increased reflec...

Improving regional waste management using the circular economy as an epistemic object

ABSTRACT The transition to a circular economy (CE) has become the focus of both academics and non-academics in later years. However, there is still confusion about how to interpret this concept and whether or not it is a revitalisation of pre-existing ideas. During a 2-year project, the CE was used in a collaborative research project as a way to establish a dialogue about waste management on a regional level. A diverse group of participants were invited to meetings and workshops to discuss improvements to waste management. The CE was interpreted in different ways due to the diversity of the participants. The theories of boundary objects and epistemic objects are used in this paper to show how the CE can be an abstract and flexible concept that still contributes to concrete improvements to waste management. In such a way, the CE presents normative goals that function as a catalyst for environmental improvement. This paper shows how research and practice can be bridged using workshops to introduce such an abstract idea while still contributing to change in practice.