Policy Interventions for Accelerating the Transition to Circular Agriculture in the North-Netherlands (PhD project - Jelle Silvius)

Background

Circular agriculture is increasingly regarded as a way to produce and consume food within planetary boundaries. Because circularity is at odds with the linear organization of current food systems, a shift towards circular agriculture entails systemic changes in markets, organizations and institutions. This process of profound changes is also referred to as a transition or transformation.

Description

The PhD project of Jelle Silvius deals with the governance of a transformation to Circular Agriculture in the North-Netherlands and the role of circular initiatives in fostering this transformation.

In this project, we aim to explore the transformative potential and transformative impact of circular initiatives. We explore what characteristics make initiatives potentially transformative and how to recognize initiatives that hold potential. We analyze how potentially transformative initiatives create impact through scaling processes and how, in doing so, these initiatives deal with economic, institutional, infrastructural and other systemic constraints. Finally, we explore how governance interventions could target systemic leverage points to amplify the impact of circular initiatives. To do so, we build on insights from transformation studies, policy sciences and the natural science literature on circular food systems.

Publications

• Silvius, J., Hoogstra, A.G., Candel, J.J.L., de Olde, E.M., de Boer, I.J.M., Termeer, C.J.A.M. (2023) Determining the transformative potential of circular agriculture initiatives. Ambio.