Strategic Planning in Local Governments: The Case of the Circular Economy in Belgium

Abstract

Today’s society is confronted with many grand challenges, including climate change, resource scarcity, social inequality, and geopolitical conflicts. One of the concepts that has been gaining attention as a means to address some of these challenges is the circular economy. This concept is about an alternative economic system where the ‘end of life’ concept is replaced with reducing, alternatively reusing, recycling, and recovering materials with the aim of reducing the environmental impact and achieving sustainable development. The transition to a circular economy requires system changes that involve all stakeholders. One type of stakeholder that is considered key in this transition is the local government. On the one hand, local governments are confronted with the impacts of these grand challenges, and citizens expect their local governments to address them. On the other hand, local governments have the ability to translate the circular economy into solutions that fit the local context. They can do so by involving local stakeholders or leading by example, and they are often responsible for key domains like waste management and the local economy. However, local governments are often small and have limited capacity, requiring collaboration. Also, the transition to the circular economy will be a long process, requiring strategizing to align aspirations and capabilities. This dissertation addresses the topic of how local governments strategize for the circular economy, including different stakeholders in their organizational, interorganizational, and multilevel governance context. By doing so, this dissertation contributes to the lack of contextual research on local government’s strategies for the circular economy and the consideration of different external stakeholders in strategic planning. This dissertation includes three empirical papers using both quantitative and qualitative research methods to provide a holistic analysis. Each paper considers local governments’ strategies at a different context level, considering different stakeholders and connecting them to related literature streams. The focus is on Belgian local governments, as the different government levels of Belgium have committed to implementing the circular economy for several years. The Flemish region is even a European pilot for implementing the circular economy and actively promotes its adoption by local governments.