ABSTRACT

The circular economy (CE) is currently generating considerable expectations. The concept describes an aspired future but does not provide clear guidance for policy-making. As policy outcomes often rest on initiatives generated in a bottom-up fashion, our attention must be directed to the ways policies are made accessible and interesting to those who might take the initiative. We claim that on-line publicity plays a key role in this. Our findings from a hyperlink analysis focusing on a government funding call for nutrient recycling in Finland show how multiple versions of the policy topic unfold online, as emergent hyperlink clusters prioritize specific agents, material circuits, and policy visions over others. The topic becomes connected with activities and agendas to create path dependencies and to strengthen existing divisions rather than to advocate change. Thus, we argue that CE policy design must recognize the way policy is shaped through online publicity creation.

摘要

循环经济 (CE) 目前正在产生相当大的期望。该概念描述了一个令人向往的未来，但没有为决策提供明确的指导。由于政策结果通常取决于以自下而上的方式产生的举措，因此我们必须将注意力集中在让可能采取主动的人了解和感兴趣政策的方式上。我们声称在线宣传在这方面起着关键作用。我们对芬兰政府资助营养回收呼吁的超链接分析的发现表明，随着新兴的超链接集群优先考虑特定的代理、材料回路和政策愿景，政策主题的多个版本是如何在网上展开的。该主题与活动和议程相关联，以创建路径依赖并加强现有分歧，而不是倡导变革。因此，我们认为 CE 政策设计必须认识到通过在线宣传创作来塑造政策的方式。