Stine Madsen's thesis questions at what level transformational change should be implemented

Stine Madsen’s thesis shines light on frictions and power imbalances as EU waste directives are implemented in Danish law. “Sustainable transitions are all about changing systems. My research questions are related to at what level decision making should happen.”

A woman, Stine Madsen. Photo. — Stine Madsen defended her thesis at the Department of Human Geography at Lund University.

Stine Madsen’s thesis, which she defended at the Department of Human Geography at Lund University, explores how Denmark has reacted to the 2018 revisions of European Union waste directives. The directives introduced a set of priorities for the efficient use of resources, and greater application of the waste hierarchy in attempts to ensure that waste is first reduced, then reused, recycled, recovered, and as a last resort, landfilled. In 2020, in response to the directive, the Danish state removed decision making powers from the municipal level, and set a cap on incineration. Another change is that all 98 municipalities now have to use the same system to collect waste.

She explains that these attempts to pursue a circular economy in the Danish waste sector have been highly contested. Actors with stakes in the system are mobilising to try to shape the unfolding changes: some actors work to defend the current system, characterised in Denmark by a relatively high level of incineration, other actors align with the promotion of greater recycling. Several actors want to see changes that are more radical, and in turn promote increased reuse and reduced consumption.

– Studying how Denmark is now implementing EU policies into national law is interesting. It points to challenges of how to plan and implement transformational change in national systems that might differ from each other. How could, and should, nation states translate EU policy across governance levels, and engage actors in the process? says Stine Madsen.

Transformational change at the right level

Based on her thesis results, one of Stine Madsen’s conclusions, is that it is important to problematise assumptions relating to at what level decision making should happen when EU policy is made into law. This is an important finding, according to her, since scholars are currently making strong arguments in favor of pursuing systemic change at the regional or municipal level – based on subsidiary arguments that the subnational can more effectively translate the direction of change decided at higher levels of governance into local industrial opportunities.

– My research suggests that delegating decision powers to the local or regional level is no panacea for effective governance. Rather, in Denmark, it seems that decades of strong municipal power in the waste sector, is part of what explains the country’s high level of incineration, which meets critique from the perspective of circular economy.

Instead, Stine Madsen argues that a shift towards circularity requires a range of different pathways and policy support - that should be designed with more concern for historical and contextual settings. Aspects such as power imbalances, friction, and analysis of where opportunities for change are the greatest, are also important.

She gives an example:

– I studied two niche alternatives to the management of plastic packaging: reuse and chemical recycling. We found that chemical recycling actors in the Danish setting have access to resources and networks of powerful allies such as the petrochemical industry, while resources and networks are significantly scarcer amongst reuse actors. These niches are therefore likely to require vastly different policy support to be institutionalised further, and become viable alternatives to incineration.

What form this support could take practically depends on how Denmark decides to allocate resources, and decision powers in the future, according to Stine Madsen. But it is crucial that Denmark as a state take ownership of the transition to a circular economy.

– When it comes to waste, however, this is a highly regulated and institutionalised system, which for decades have been governed by changing rationalities – it has not been allowed to run its own course. There is a need dismantle unsustainable institutions in the system, and attempts to move beyond certain single use products can be seen as an example of this. The state also needs to be proactive in supporting a milieu where the playing field between actors is more even, says Stine Madsen.

About Stine Madsen’s thesis

Stine Madsen defended her thesis in early 2023, within STEPS work package three: plastic governance. Download Stine Madsen’s thesis at lub.lu.se: Pursuing a Circular Economy in the Danish Waste Sector: Scale and Transition Dynamics in Transformative Innovation Policy.